Since this season, Dstny has been a co-sponsor of the traditional Lotto team. The communication company is led by cycling enthusiast Daan De Wever, who came to Vive le Vélo to explain the challenges of sponsors in the cycling world.
Dstny has been a fast-growing company for several years, active in countries where cycling is very popular.
When it was announced that Lotto was looking for a successor to Soudal, De Wever was soon asked why he did not take part in the project.
“Your first reaction is ‘no way’, but later you start to think. When I called the financial director to ask him to take a look at cycling, he thought it was a fantastic idea,” says De Wever.
And so Lotto – Dstny was born.
“What makes cycling so unique, especially for commercial companies, is the fact that a team bears your name. There is no platform where you have that, unless you are going to sponsor a stadium.”
That does not automatically mean that the general public knows what the name sponsors in cycling stand for. According to De Wever, this is the biggest challenge for sponsors.
“A good example is Visma. They are in a similar sector to us. Everyone knows Visma, but if you ask 100 people what the company does, it becomes more difficult.”
“We do notice that our people have to explain much less ‘Who is Dstny?’, and the question mainly becomes ‘What does Dstny do?’ .
Jan Bakelants wondered in Vive le Vélo why he could not become CEO of Lotto-Dstny. De Wever quickly assured that he had no voice in this selection process, while Bakelants felt that his candidacy was not taken seriously enough.
