HMG Paints Ltd. (HMG) (Manchester, England) recently announced the passing of its longtime chairman, Brian Falder, at the age of 88.
Born in 1931, Brian Falder was the only child of Herbert and Ellen Falder. Seven months previous, the elder Falder and his business partner, H. Marcel Guest, founded HMG. By the age of 14, Falder worked on the factory floor of his father’s company while many company employees served in the armed forces during the final days of World War II. This period proved formative for Falder, as he came to value those who “actually make the paint.”
While at a dance, Falder met his future wife, Beryl, who then worked for a then-extant Sterling Varnish Co. This fact apparently caused Falder to remark, “A girl in the paint industry? … I had better marry you!” Their mutual interest in paint served as the basis for a long and happy union, as Brian and Beryl enjoyed a 65-year marriage before his death.
As the years progressed, Falder assumed leadership of HMG from his father. Under his watch, the company moved to Collyhurst Road, where it resides to this day. Falder also instituted policies such as a strict closing time of 5:00 p.m. so that workers could spend more time with their families and funded a non-contributory pension fund so that retired employees could be insured “a bit extra.”
In a 2017 interview with the Oil & Colour Chemists Association shortly after that organization made him a Fellow of the Technology of Surface Coatings, Falder reflected on his long career.
“It’s been a fantastic ride over the past 73 years in the coatings industry. Over the years I think I have visited every kind of industrial manufacturing plant there is! From bus manufacturers to pencil manufacturers, basically if it’s got paint on it, we’ve been there.”
“I have really enjoyed developing countless coatings for every kind of industry and I got to do this alongside my father, then my sons and now my grandchildren.”
A few days before he passed, Falder made one final visit to HMG to inspect a piece of machinery he bought back in 1949. Fittingly enough, he was laid to rest on October 4—exactly 89 years to the day that HMG was founded.
Source: HMG Paints Ltd., www.hmgpaint.com