A second professional golfer, Leona Maguire, is under pressure to end her sponsorship deal with the Irish company Kingspan after the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster found it behaved with “persistent dishonesty” in selling combustible foam insulation.
Grenfell United (GU), the bereaved and survivors group, is calling on the 29-year-old to drop the firm and stop wearing its logo on her golf shirts after the Ryder Cup player Shane Lowry announced he was doing so earlier this week.
Ed Daffarn, a committee member and survivor of the fire, said: “If she continues her relationship with Kingspan she is making a conscious decision to endorse a company that the public inquiry found behaved with ‘persistent dishonesty’ and we believe had a total disregard for human life.”
Kingspan, which turns over €8bn a year, made only about 5% of the combustible foam insulation on Grenfell Tower where 72 people died, but the inquiry last week found that by its “dishonest marketing” of its K15 product, it “created the conditions” for Celotex, another insulation company, to try to break into the market by “dishonest means”.
GU wrote to her management company, Modest, in September 2023 urging her to end the deal, but received no response.
According to the inquiry’s conclusions, published last week after a seven-year investigation, the story of the development and marketing of the product for use on towers “is one of deeply entrenched and persistent dishonesty on the part of Kingspan in pursuit of commercial gain coupled with a complete disregard for fire safety”.
There had been “a casual disregard for public safety at a senior level in Kingspan”, which was one of three cladding or insulation manufacturers, including Arconic and Celotex, which “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to … mislead the market”, the inquiry found.
Maguire is one of the world’s leading golfers and has been a member of LPGA tour since 2021, netting $4.6m in prize money. This weekend she is playing for Europe against the US in the Solheim Cup team event at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club near Washington DC.
The pressure on her to drop Kingspan comes days after Lowry announced that he was ending his partnership with the firm. GU said it had written to him several times over the past three years urging him to stop and alerting him to evidence about Kingspan’s conduct emerging from the public inquiry, but did not receive a reply.
In a statement on Tuesday, Lowry said: “Kingspan and I have mutually agreed to discontinue our sponsorship relationship, which we believe to be the right decision for all concerned at this time. Neither party will be commenting further.”
In 2021, survivors and the bereaved successfully campaigned to persuade the Mercedes Formula One team to drop Kingspan as sponsor of its car, which was driven by the British seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Ulster Rugby, whose stadium is sponsored by Kingspan, has said it will end the deal in 2025, adding it was “a natural stepping-off point” after a 20-year relationship.
Daffarn said: “Maguire needs to follow the example of Mercedes and Shane Lowry and cut her ties with Kingspan immediately.”
Kingspan is also the sponsor of the Cavan GAA county team who play at Kingspan Breffni Park in County Cavan, Ireland.
Kingspan and Cavan GAA declined to comment. Maguire has been contacted for comment.