Printing in the North East since 1898
Free artwork check on every order • Free UK delivery on print orders of £150 or more • Shop now
Est. 1898
A family business. Over 125 years of ink on paper.
Howard, Glenn and Aaron Paterson
Smith Bros has been a family business since 1898: first the Smith family, then the Paterson family from 1964. Smith Bros was established in 1898 on Lyon Street in Hebburn. An old print works with hand-fed presses, lino typesetting, and a staff who'd been there for decades. A proper working print shop from the very start.
In 1952, a 24-year-old Howard Paterson got the train to Hebburn. The fare was 11d return (about £1.30 in today's money). He walked into Smith Bros as a freshly qualified printer. The place was run by Miss Isabell Smith, the owner, with a foreman and machineman who'd both been there since 1919.
Howard got to work improving things straight away. He introduced perforating rules and numbering boxes where everything had been done by hand. He set up lino typesetting for jobs that were still being composed letter by letter. He pushed for the first automatic platen press and started putting every job in an index book so nothing fell through the cracks. The work was everything from council minutes and registers of electors to cinema posters and election printing. Proper community work for Jarrow, Hebburn, and Boldon.
When Miss Smith passed away in 1964, Howard was appointed manager. He later bought the business outright, and in 1973 moved Smith Bros to 44 Glen Street, where we've been ever since.
Glenn grew up in the shop, helping out after school and during holidays from the time he was a kid. By the time he officially joined Howard in 1984, he already knew the place inside out. He brought in modern digital printing alongside the traditional presses, and between them they kept the business growing. Same standards Howard set, but with technology that could turn around thousands of prints in an afternoon instead of a week.
Glenn and Aaron in the shop
Like his dad before him, Aaron grew up coming into the shop. Sorting jobs, learning the presses, breathing in the ink. In 2011, he joined Glenn full-time. Even Howard kept coming in well into his late eighties, popping his head round the door, running the machines to help out, keeping busy after his wife Irene passed. The shop was in his blood right to the end.
Howard, Glenn and Aaron, same street, same doorstep. The hand-fed presses are gone and the lino typesetting's long retired, but the job's the same as it always was: print things properly for the people around us.
If it can be printed, we probably do it. Most of our work comes from local businesses who need things done well. Business cards for a new starter, flyers for an event next week, menus for a restaurant that's just changed their specials. We handle everything from a run of 50 to tens of thousands.
The small detail beneath the O in our name comes from the numbering boxes Aaron's grandad taught him to ink on the old platen. Aaron was more at home with computers, but that memory stayed with him. It is a small reminder of the people and practical knowledge behind Smith Bros.
We are a print shop, not just a website. Someone answers the phone when your artwork is not quite right. Your files are checked before they print. You can come in and talk it through at 44 Glen Street, or tell us what you had last time and we will look up your previous job.
We're not trying to be the biggest. We're trying to be the printer you can trust, the one you ring when it matters.