12 BusIness AUGUST 2019
FROM PAGE 10
the big interview
Rochdale FC CEO David Bottomleyfor the likes of Trivial Pursuit, Action
Man, Star Wars and Connect 4.
After leaving Hasbro he co-founded a
specialist science toy company called
Trends UK in 2002, which became the
largest science toy company in the UK.
By the time he exited in 2012 turnover
had grown to £8.5m.
Thoughts of a quiet retirement ended
when he was asked to join the board of
his beloved Rochdale AFC, stepping up
as chief executive in December, 2018.
Bottomley was born and bred in
Rochdale – and intensely proud of it.
His dad was a sales director in the
textile industry while his mum was a
housewife.
“I grew up with the affliction that I
became a Rochdale football fan at the
age of eight in 1968/69 which coincided
with the first promotion in their entire
history,” he recalls.
“When I was growing up Rochdale
had a reputation of being a bit of a grim
northern town. Its history was in the
textile industry. In the mid-1970s the
biggest employer in the town was
Turner Brothers Asbestos, which
employed 3,000-4,000.
“I’ll be honest with you, growing up I
had a burning desire to get away in the
late 1970s, when I thought the streets
were paved with gold elsewhere.”
As a teenager his first job was at
Cadbury Schweppes Group, which saw
him move to Birmingham and then
Norwich. However the vast majority
of his career was spent in the toy
industry.
At Hasbro he was the group sales
director and had up to 85 people
working under him, regularly travelling
to the Far East and the US.
“Such was the popularity of Trivial
Pursuits that in 1992 it sold 1.5 million
units in the UK alone,” he remembers
proudly.
Bottomley moved to Henley-on-
Thames but never lost his accent.
“I’m very aware that I pronounce
vowels very strongly but I’m very proud
of my accent. It is what it is. I’m a
northerner.”
For a joke he used to pretend he was
from Henley-on-Thames. “I used to say
I was born in Henley-on-Thames but I
got bored of speaking in a middle
English accent and I wanted to have a
northern accent like my parents so I
used to go to elocution lessons to talk
in a more northern accent and they
used to believe me.”
After leaving Hasbro he became a
consultant before he co-founded a
specialist science toy company called
Trends UK in 2002, where he stayed for
a decade.
Throughout his self-imposed exile
down south his love affair with
Rochdale AFC continued.
“I’ve always been a fan,” he says.
“Even when I moved away I’d come
back to half a dozen games a season.
“I have a son called Simon, who is 33.
When he started getting into football I
used to take him up to Rochdale a few
times but he wasn’t smitten.
“I also used to take him to Reading’s
Madejski Stadium then one day he
turned around to me and said ‘I’m
bored of watching Reading, I want to be
a Dale fan like you.
“We started doing 400- mile round
trips from Henley for Saturday and
Tuesday night football. In 2014/15 I saw
41 games. Simon became very
involved.”
Rochdale and its Crown Oil Arena
ground is a million miles away from the
cash-rich Premier League, evidenced
by a phone call Bottomley made to
Rochdale in 2006.
“I asked if I could book some
hospitality for six people for the match
on December 28, 2006, against Boston
and the girl said I could have the match
ball sponsorship if I could make it
eight!
“My claim to fame was I sponsoredthe match ball for Keith Hill’s first ever
win as Rochdale manager and it was a
4-0 win against Boston. The team went
away to Grimsby on New Year’s Day
and won 4-0 and Rochdale gave him
the job and the rest is history. Hebecame Rochdale’s most successful
ever manager.”
In 2015 Bottomley joined the board
at Rochdale. “I decided to bring my life
back to the north and devoted myself
to the club,” he says. “All the directors atLuke Matheson