RG,
Ian Levine. Yes. well remembered.
He was the biggest buyer of soul. Rumour had it that the volume he was buying and shipping back to the UK was on commercial levels. What's more, they were for his own collection rather than reselling. As well as sixties stuff he was also finding current records from artists that had yet to get exposure.

People forget that the Northern Soul scene was initially much bigger than the jazz funk and contemporary souls scene. Loads more clubs and a decade's worth of stuff to play.
It was only towards the very end of the Seventies that it got displaced.