AHARTLEBURY-based hot tub manufacturer and supplier has agreed a six-figure shirt sponsorship deal with Worcestershire County Cricket Club.

Arctic Spas, on Hartlebury Trading Estate, put pen to paper on a three-year deal with the club until the end of the 2016 campaign.

The company is extending its partnership with Worcestershire, after initially being its Twenty20 sponsors last season.

Club chief executive David Leatherdale hopes it will be the start of a "long-term" relationship with the firm, which has been supplying hot tubs in the UK since 2000.

He believes would-be sponsors such as Arctic Spas are showing increasing confidence in the county after becoming a 365-day-a-year business with the opening of the multi-million pound corporate and membership facility The View and showing greater capacity to cope with annual flood waters.

Mr Leatherdale, a former Worcestershire all-rounder for nearly two decades, said: "Arctic were with us last year and for them to come on board for three years as the main shirt sponsor shows confidence from them in the club.

"Hopefully, it is the start of a long-term relationship. This is a very different business now that sponsors are buying into and, with the facilities,it is the diversity we are now offering sponsors that we didn't have before that people are keen to be involved with.

"We've had some long-term main sponsors in the past and to get someone who came on new and fresh last year just for one specific thing and then take it across all three formats of the game shows what cricket has got to offer."

Worcestershire business development director Jon Graham said: "We have been courting quite a few businesses to get them to buy into the vision we are committed to over the next few years.

"It is the most significant sponsorship deal we've done in recent times, into six figures over the next three years.

"It is good to have a sponsor and a business partner that actually buys into the vision of where we are taking the club.

"Recent investment in the infrastructure has demonstrated not only to the county - but the ECB as well - where Worcestershire are going with things."

He added: "We are really pleased to have Arctic Spas on board and really looking forward to the next three years. I think it is going to be exciting times."

David Martin, Arctic Spas president of UK operations, said: "The progress Worcestershire have made with their infrastructure and buildings was a massive part for us.

"They are certainly looking to the future and have all the steps there to take Worcestershire cricket back to where it used to be, at the top of the tree.

"We don't go into anything blindly so I have read up on the club and who has been involved and the history and the club is steeped in history and one of the major players.

"You need to take everything into consideration when you are doing any sort of sponsorship and I just felt the way they are looking forward, with the history behind them, is a good mix for Arctic Spas."