The Foden's and Roberts Bakery Bands have announced a ‘mutually beneficial’ partnership which they hope will bring musical benefits to the local communities in the Sandbach and greater Cheshire area where they are based.

Strong following

Foden's Band Manager Mark Wilkinson told 4BR: "Foden's have a strong following in these geographic areas with around 500 patrons as well as existing partnerships with Sandbach Council, Cheshire East, Love Music Trust Hub, Lions Youth and our own Youth Band."

He added: "In order to strengthen those links we approached Roberts Bakery Band to form a partnership that we hope will result in an annual massed band concert and Foden's players offering free private lessons and sectional tuition to the band and its players.

It is also envisaged that each band helps each other with concert promotions."

The partnership fits in well with the development plan we have and can only bring around excellent opportunities for all stakeholdersRoberts Bakery MD, Simon Stonehouse

Full support

Roberts Bakery MD Simon Stonehouse was also fully supportive of the new initiative: "We are delighted to formalise a partnership with Foden’s and see it as an excellent opportunity to further improve the standard of our players and to provide cohesive development for brass banding around the Sandbach area. It is mutually beneficial to us all."

He added: "The partnership fits in well with the development plan we have and can only bring around excellent opportunities for all stakeholders. We are looking forward to supporting Foden’s in some exciting projects in 2014 and beyond."