ALAN Hamilton is 76 but says he is too young to retire. "People ask why I still work but it’s my business," he says. "It’s difficult to explain unless you have had your own business."

Mr Hamilton has made his fortune out of selling one of the North-East’s most humble dishes, and is celebrating 40 years in business.

He founded Durham Foods, a firm which is best known for the pease pudding it makes from a recipe he developed almost four decades ago.

Mr Hamilton, from Belmont, near Durham, no longer makes the traditional sandwich-filler himself, but still plays a daily role in the cooked meat business, which is run by his son, Alan Hamilton.

He says: “I’m too young to retire. I don’t do what I used to do, I don’t mix the pease pudding or do the hams.

“I had a heart attack when I was 61 so started to slow down and Alan started to take over.

“I used to find work a challenge – I had to do it my best. If I was making something, it had to be the best.”

The former pitman, who worked at Sherburn Hill Colliery for seven years after leaving school at the age of 15, set up the business in 1978 after a spell of working first as a salesman for Richmond Sausages and then as a manager for Palethorpes.

Working with his partner Colin Lambton, they started off selling cooked meats, based out of a converted barn in Sunderland Road, before deciding to produce the pease pudding which the business is now best known for.

Made with Canadian split yellow peas, salt and white pepper, the end product is vegetarian as it omits the traditional ham stock.

“There’s a way of mixing it that’s a closely guarded family secret," says Mr Hamilton.

“Pease pudding was made with yellow split peas and ham stock. All I did was take the ham stock out and added salt and pepper."

He adds: “When I was eating pease pudding as a child, it was something that was done by the housewife.

“It was only when someone in Sunderland started making it and putting it in shops that it was something you could buy.

“When we started the business we used to buy everything in and we didn’t have any cooking. We bought in a pease pudding but it wasn’t at the standard we do it to now.

“It took us a while to get it right – in the beginning we got a second hand copper pot to make it in and it came out green.

“When we first started we only did 100 tubs a week.”

The company started to grow after managing to secure a contract with Willson’s supermarket – though when the chain was bought out, it lost about a third of its business, leading to hard times for the firm.

HOWEVER it is now the biggest producer of the spread in the North-East, making 72,000 tubs a week and supplying major retailers including Asda, Morrisons, the Co-Op and Lidl and Aldi, which have been responsible for exporting it outside of the region.

Mr Hamilton junior says: “We have it in the Midlands now. We get emails, mostly from North-East expats saying how great it is they can buy it again and we get comments from people who have never had it before as well.

“We’ve even had requests from places likes Brighton and on the south coast."

The business, which employs about 20 people and involves three generations of the Hamilton family, is based at Renny’s Lane Industrial Estate, in Gilesgate, in a factory unit where its also cooks its hams, pork and beef.

The company, which invested £100,000 in the factory last year, is now expanding with a new product – a range of flavoured split pea dips to rival hummus, using the brand Down by the River as a nod to its roots in Durham.

Mr Hamilton junior, whose children Ainsleigh, Lewis and Kirsty all work for Durham Foods, says: “I’d love to think in 100 years time where this place could be.

“My dad did his bit and I’ve done my bit. I would like to think it can be a legacy and it will still be going strong when I’m his age.”

He adds: “We were worried because it’s a traditional food and we were worried about young people cutting it out but we’re selling more now than ever before.

“In a way, dad was years ahead of him time because it’s healthy, it’s low in fat, it’s vegan and free from allergens which is the popular thing now.”