HIS more famous brother may have swapped a promising law career for madcap TV comedy, but Richard Mortimer has reaped the benefits of being with the same company for 45 years.

Richard’s three brothers all went to university and became solicitors. One of them, Robert, surprised his bosses when he suddenly quit his law job and teamed up with comedian Vic Reeves.

“Of course, I have followed my brother’s comedy career and we are all very proud of his success,” says Richard, 61, who now heads the printing firm he joined as an apprentice in 1968.

“We are a very close family and make a point of meeting up three of four times a year.

“Bob, or Robert as I call him, was always a genius with words. He can make a statement that seems simple and straightforward, but it’s so good you just wish you’d said it.

“He has this wonderful ability to be able to describe someone to you, have you in uncontrollable fits of laughter, but without being in the slightest bit malicious.

“I see Vic as being the comic and Robert is the wordsmith. They make a great team.”

The Northern Echo:
FAMOUS BROTHER: Richard, right, with brother Bob, left

Leaving school at 16 with GCSEs in religious studies and woodwork, Richard started a five-year apprenticeship at Middlesbrough-based print firm F Griffiths, owned by Hill International.

“The industry appealed to me because in those days it was a craft,” he said.

“It’s been fascinating to see the industry go from hot metal to Apple Macs. When I started, one person could produce 2,000 single-colour impressions in an hour. Now you can do 120,000 in multiple colours. It’s a different world.

“It was a fairly small firm.

Most of our work was for office stationery, but I preferred that to going into one of the big Teesside employers of the time like British Steel or ICI.”

After ten years with Griffiths, Richard was appointed assistant manager at its Bishop Auckland plant shortly before sister sites in Newcastle and Middlesbrough were closed.

In 1985, he helped lead a successful management buyout.

“The four of us put our houses on the line to help fund the deal. When your home is at stake, you work twice as hard to make things a success.”

HPM built up a strong local client list which included Middlesbrough FC, ICI and scores of small firms. It moved into bigger premises on Aycliffe Industrial Estate in 2000, supported by a £2m investment in new equipment and technology.

Keeping up with the latest developments and expanding the firm’s offering to deliver services such as web design and creative development helped it survive when rivals went to the wall.

It now prints matchday programmes for Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Liverpool, as well as for rugby league clubs.

Since he became managing director in 1999, HPM has gone from a turnover of £1.4m to £4.5m, employing 45 staff.

Its client base remains predominantly North-Eastern, but Richard hopes to win new business in London.

“If you can read it – in print, on a computer, a smartphone, anywhere – we want to be part of it,” says Richard, whose youngest daughter, Jane, works in the business.

“I am living proof that apprenticeships can give you a phenomenal career.

“It was absolutely criminal when they were cut back in the 1970s and 1980s. It is great to see that they are making a comeback.”