2022 was a crazy year. In and out of the office, it was a year of experiences, surprises, and successes. As the year came to a close, we wanted to take a step back and to celebrate the year that we’ve had. Part of that is to celebrate our successes and the successes of our partners, and there are plenty!
We decided to ask our staff at Akuma HQ for their favourite moments of 2022, and their suggestions were, as expected, perfect. These were some of their favourite moments of the past year.
Akuma partners with Marathon Kids UK
This was a first for Akuma and one that we’re all immensely proud of. Taking the decision to give back to the community, we set our sales team the task of finding an amazing charity, with similar goals, to partner with. Marathon Kids impressed us from day one and we are so proud to be entering 2022 as their partner.
After a few months of logistics and agreements, we were thrilled to be able to announce the partnership in early November to our family. Having recently celebrated their 12th birthday and soon to be seeing a key member undertake a world record attempt in Australia, the team at Akuma are proud partners are ready to offer whatever assistance might be needed.
New and Renewed partnerships
This year has seen some new partners joining the family and many returners. To name them all would take pages and a long time to read, but we’re so thankful for every returning team that trusted us to continue our partnership and to every new team that chose us. To name just a few recent returners, we’re thrilled to be welcoming back Hartlepool Mavericks dodgeball who frequently post amazing team pictures and Kingston-Upon-Hull hockey. To name just a few new partnerships, we’re thrilled to have partnered with Haarlem RFC, Kidderminster Carolians, and Saracens Amateurs RFC this year – welcome to the family and a huge welcome to the many other teams! We look forward to working with you.
A breakthrough in the US markets saw us partnering with US Army 7s and US Navy, while a positive partnership saw a renewal of our partnership with Penn State University. Other US Universities have also become partners such as Browns, Babson and Iowa to name just a few, we are thrilled to have so many American Universities joining the Akuma family.
Staff promotions, milestones, and additions
This has been a huge year for milestones and promotions! This year saw two key staff members in the design department reach their 10 years with Akuma, huge congratulations to both Mark and Paul on their milestone. We also have had a huge number of new staff joining us this year, as well as fresh Placement students.
Away from staff, we saw huge milestones in consecutive highest-ever financial months and every pre-season target being hit. We were hugely proud of every achievement that has come our way this year and we hope that every staff member knows how much they contributed toward these achievements.
Finally, and perhaps biasedly as this is written by the marketer, we are also hugely proud of our milestones on social media and online reviews. In October, we hit 6k followers on Instagram which has seen a steady and quick rise in followers since the summer. We were then thrilled to hit 2k reviews on Trustpilot with an average rating of 4.8*, which is massive for us. We couldn’t be prouder and more thankful to every customer that leaves a review.
Akuma HQ Staff Events
With every milestone, there has been celebrating to be had – and the office has been alive with life! Over the last few months, we have had an HQ burger night with the fabulous Flying Cow burgers and a Halloween fancy dress day. More recently, we had Christmas events with the desk decorating competition and our yearly secret Santa. It has been a year of fun all around.
But not just at Akuma! Our directors and founders, the three Aldersley brothers, recently took the trip out to the Akuma-sponsored New York 7s tournament to join the festivities and to see how things are done across the pond. We’re reliably informed that they had a great time and we hope that everyone involved had a wonderful time!
Check out our Instagram to see the photographic round-up of 2022 – see if you can spot your team! We’d love to hear more from you about your favourite parts of the year, whether they’re milestones or club achievements! Whatever you’d like to share, let us know on our socials so that we can celebrate this New Year with you!
And, from everyone at Akuma Sports HQ, we hope that you have a very happy new year!
Welcome to the #AkumaFamily!
