Mr David Dand

DAVID Dand will have a place in Irish business history as the man who brought Baileys to the world.

Behind that soubriquet is my clear recollection of a businessman who possessed more than you expect in one man of creativeness, vision and commitment.

In 1975 he demonstrated to the world that two disparate liquids could live in harmony inside one bottle. This could only happen to high class raw materials processed to world class standards. They were David Dand's minimum standards.

But he was first and foremost a salesman, a tireless traveller, a builder of international regard for his business style and for his brands.

He passionately believed in the value of accumulated goodwill that can never be achieved without a positive and even aggressive approach, to branding.

David's first major business conquest lay in securing Smirnoff vodka, for Ireland, in the 1960's thereby bringing a new dimension to the country's spirit industry.

He made the "spirit world" his personal stage and strode it with authority and conviction until his recent final exit and then untimely death at just 64.

The businessman was good humoured and good-natured, when it mattered most. As one who came under his fatherly wing at a tender - and comparatively innocent age, I will forever recall his unstinted support, but I will equally never forget that he could be ruggedly uncompromising.

The businessman off-duty had a great rapport with a huge circle of friends. He had a rewarding sense of humour and an enviable appreciation of good food and good wine presented as they deserved to be.

I and my colleagues fully understand the huge loss sustained by his wife Leonora, his daughter, Nicola and son, Alastair, his brother Peter and his sisters, Gillian and Rosalind. We sympathise with them in the fullst realisation that there was a man who was one of a kind.