Nat Solomon, the former managing director of Associated Leisure, the UK’s largest distributor in the 1980s and 1990s, died in a London hospital on Saturday aged 91 after a short illness.
Associated Leisure was a publicly-traded company that grew out of the old Phonographic distribution company, later merging into Phonographic Ruffler and Walker or simply PRW. That company went public in 1974 to become the new A.L.
Solomon came out of Cambridge with a degree in economics and worked for Unilever for many years before he was headhunted to lead the new A.L. He took the company into the Pleasurama Group and oversaw the merging of Pleasurama with Mecca. Subsequently, he carried out consultancy work for a number of companies in the leisure industry.
Throughout his life he was an avid supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and in 1991 he became chairman of the club when it was in financial difficulties. It was Solomon who sold off the club’s best player, Paul Gascoigne, to Italian club Lazio for £5.5m to clear the club’s debts. He later handled the sale of the club to businessman Alan Sugar in 1993. At the time of his death, Nat Solomon was a life president of the club.
One current industry leader who remembers Solomon well is Nick Harding, CEO at Praesepe, the major adult gaming centre group and part of the Gauselmann Group. Harding said: “Nat Solomon was my chairman for a number of years in the late nineties. He was always the consummate professional in the way that he conducted business, taking great pride in doing everything to the letter and I learnt a huge amount from him, business strategy, business ethics and the benefits of always dealing with people in a courteous way, are to name but a few. We rarely disagreed about anything, other than the anticipated score of the North London Derby and if Spurs happened to beat Arsenal (fortunately not that often!) then he delighted in rubbing it in! I shall miss him dearly.”
Nat Solomon leaves a son Justin and a daughter Claire.
Pictured: Nat Solomon celebrating his 90th birthday with Nick Harding
