Bosch cuts ties with Pitch@Palace as Prince Andrew stays on
Bosch is the latest company to end its association with Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace scheme, City A.M. has learnt.
A spokesperson for Bosch confirmed: “While Bosch will continue to support the next generation of entrepreneurial talent through various means, the company has decided against renewing its sponsorship with Pitch@Palace. The current contract is due to expire at the end of this month.”
Read more: Buckingham Palace confirms Prince Andrew will continue to work on Pitch@Palace scheme
The news comes after Buckingham Palace this morning confirmed that Prince Andrew will continue to work on his Pitch@Palace initiative, as was first reported by City A.M. last night.
A spokesperson confirmed: “The Duke will continue to work on Pitch@Palace but will look at how he takes this forward outside of his public duties and outside of Buckingham Palace.
“Naturally there will be a transition period while this takes place.”
However, there were doubts from some quarters whether this position was sustainable. A source from another sponsor said:
“We don’t believe that the position that the palace put out this morning is tenable and we think that if this half-measure fails to revive the reputation of the programme then we will simply walk away from our existing contract.”
The company joins KPMG, Standard Chartered, Inmarsat, Advertising Week Europe, Gravity Road and Aon in ending their partnership of the scheme.
BT also said that it would not support training firm Idea while the Duke remained its patron.
A source close to Pitch@Palace told City A.M. that it was “business as usual” at the programme, which connects entrepreneurs with investors.
It comes after the Duke announced he would step back from public duties for “the foreseeable future” due to the growing fallout over his links to the late billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke said: “It has become clear to me over the last few days the circumstances relating to my former association to Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many charities and organisations that I support.”
This morning entrepreneurs offered their backing to the scheme, saying it would be a shame for the initiative to end.
Read more: Entrepreneurs back Pitch@Palace as pressure grows on Prince Andrew
Will King, founder of grooming firm King of Shaves, told the BBC it was “really sad” the Pitch@Palace initiative had “been affected by the personal issues around the Duke of York”.
He told the BBC’s Today programme: “If you’re going to continue the Pitch@Palace in the royal environment, where you have an infrastructure that is paid for – I think, in part – by the taxpayer, it would be an extraordinary shame that the palace don’t see the opportunity in continuing this initiative.”
Main image credit: Getty