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David Thrift
Some may also know him as 'Mr T' or 'Thrifty'.
David was with Rucanor Sports from May 1981 to June 1992, formerly as a Sales Executive covering East Anglia and London, and progressing rapidly to Managing Director before he was invited to join the European Board of Directors.
These were the heady days, when business was fun, but still furious.
During this time sales for Rucanor grew enormously as did David's reputation in the sports industry. In those days the industry hosted a number of trade exhibitions across the UK and in Munich which were all well attended, the favourite being at The BIC in Bournemouth.
The Bournemouth exhibition was legendary when it came to pranks, mickey-taking, laughs, and drinking. David insisted on taking his boys to Mr Pangs Chinese restaurant on the first day, and would hold court at the large spinning table. The words "rack em up me old china" could be heard most of the evening. Mr and Mrs Pang knew the guys well and knew it was all good fun and joined in. At the end of typical Pangs evening you were expected to consume a number of Mr Pangs specials - Singapore Slings - which just about finished off even the hardest of drinkers. In the morning everyone would put on a brave face, but David would leap in to the exhibition hall laughing, slapping you on the back, with the words "'ello boy, how you feeling?!"
It had been known for an entire stand to be dismantled overnight, and on arrival at the show, there would be Thrifty laughing with his usual cigar in his mouth.
On leaving Rucanor David set out on his single-minded path as a Business Consultant and worked for many high profile sports clients as well as commercial companies. He negotiated major sponsorships within football and rugby and coordinated licensing deals with the Football League, FA and Scottish FA commercial departments. There was still always a connection with sport, and he returned to Rucanor UK in 2002/3 to help reorganise the team.
"David was a great bloke, ALWAYS happy, ALWAYS smiling, a glint in his eye, story to tell, cigar in hand, that's Thrifty, I and many people will miss him."
Today you will find on the Rucanor website the following values of the company: "Characteristics of a Rucanor team member are: confident, concerned, passionate, respectful and a good sense of humour". This sums up David Thrift to perfection.
In your memory, Dave - God Bless.
