He has been dubbed North Yorkshire’s most eligible bachelor. But this multi-millionaire who has just retired at 34 endured an impoverished upbringing, raised by a single parent on benefits. He tells Ruth Campbell how he turned his life around

RITCHIE Fiddes is living the life most of us can only dream of. Having moved to a stunning converted farmhouse with stables and paddocks, set in 20 acres of magnificent North Yorkshire countryside, he is happily retired at the age of 34.

Ritchie, who owns 20 racehorses, along with six yearlings, now spends his time indulging his passion for the sport which had been a part-time hobby while he was busy building the IT business he recently sold for £23m.

What makes his story all the more remarkable is that he left school at 16, having been brought up by a single parent on benefits, living in a succession of damp, overcrowded flats and council hostels and bed and breakfasts in nearby Ripon.

Ritchie has owned Porches and Ferraris, bought a string of properties in the city and, up until recently, even lived in the penthouse suite of York’s Cedar Court Grand, North Yorkshire’s only five star hotel, for eight months, while his previous home was being renovated.

He and his business partner started their online backup and disaster recovery business from nothing, in a small, cramped office in a rough part of Leeds, above a pet shop and next to a nail bar.

The company, Backup Technology, quickly grew to be the biggest specialist in Europe, with a turnover in excess of £6m and offices in the States with clients including major sporting clubs, the BBC, the Crown Prosecution Service, Siemens, Suzuki and Pernod Ricard.

His friends joke that he is ‘North Yorkshire’s most eligible bachelor’, and Ritchie blushes at the thought. But he does admit that, if he hadn’t been so busy building up his business he would probably have settled down and had a family by now.

And family, despite his chaotic upbringing, means a lot to him. He credits his grandparents, 77-year-old Jean and George, who died recently aged 90, for giving him the vital support he needed when he was growing up.

At times, there wasn’t enough food at home when the benefits money ran out and there was little structure in his life: “My grandparents were the one solid thing in my life. They always lived in the same ex-council house, which they had saved up to buy for £600. There was always food on table and I knew my clothes would be washed.”

Ritchie moved George and Jean into one of two charming cottages, with brand new kitchen and bathroom, in the grounds of his five-bedroom Georgian farmhouse: “They never had anything like it. Having sold the business, out of everything I have done, seeing them moved in meant more to me than anything else.”

He recalls when he passed his 11plus: “It wasn’t the happiest time. We were constantly moving at that stage, I would lose my books, there was no real structure at home. But I was the first in the family to get to the grammar school and my grandparents were so proud.”

Because he got free school meals, Ritchie was entitled to a free school uniform: “They said there was no way I was wearing a free uniform. They scrimped and saved and took me to buy the uniform and all the kit, the rugby boots and everything. It stays with you, that.”

Ritchie feels that getting to the grammar school was key to his success, giving him the confidence he needed to believe he was as bright and capable as anyone else: “It was important to me that I got through,” he says.

And Ritchie always had big ambitions. Aged just 15, he wrote his father an eerily prophetic letter outlining his future plans: “I said I was going to have my own business, own a Ferrari and retire by the time I was 30,” says Ritchie. Having bought a silver Ferrari 360 for his 30th birthday and sold his business when he was 33, he was only out by a few years.

After his parents split up, when Ritchie was just three years old, his father, who was in the Army, had moved to Hampshire and Ritchie and the rest of the family lived in a damp and mouldy flat in Ripon: “The windows leaked and it was always cold. It was a struggle, definitely,” says Ritchie.

By the time he started grammar school, his mother had remarried and had another baby but his stepfather was medically discharged from the Army the family was soon on the move again, this time to a one-bedroom council hostel in Ripon: “Me and my two sisters slept in the bedroom and my mum and stepdad slept in the front room. “

After six months, they were moved to a bed and breakfast before eventually getting a council house.

Ritchie believes school helped keep him on the straight and narrow: “It taught me good values and manners. None of my friends smoked or were into drugs, we were all brought up to be good human beings.”

Although coming from an impoverished background could, at times, make things difficult: “It can be elitist. A lot of my friends were from wealthy backgrounds. Things like not having the right trainers could make you stand out.”

Ritchie did two paper rounds in order to buy his own Nike trainers and Adidas football boots: “It was tough at the time, but you learn about making money and looking after yourself, about working.”

His first business involved nabbing extra portions of free school dinners, then selling them to friends: “That was the naughtiest thing I ever did. But it was enterprising,” he laughs.

Although, academically, he did well enough, gaining seven good GCSEs, he knew he was never going to go through sixth form and on to university: “Financially, it wasn’t viable. I always knew I had to make my own money and do something myself,” he says.

His first full-time job was with SCA nutrition, animal feeds company, at Dalton airfield but after six months he moved to Hampshire to live with his father.

“A boy always wants to live with his dad,” he says. He worked for the Hospital Savings Association and then Lloyds TSB, while washing up in kitchens and waiting on tables in the evenings to make extra money until, aged 19, he moved back up North to live with his grandparents again.

He worked in IT sales for Express Terminals in Ripon for four years, gaining valuable experience as account manager for a number of large UK clients before deciding to set up a backup technology business with a cricketing friend, Simon Chappell, who worked in the same field. That was in 2005.

The pair designed an automated computer back-up service for large businesses, with data centres in Manchester and London: “We held two copies of companies’ companies’ data, off site, in secure locations, protecting it against loss from fire, theft or flood,” says Ritchie.

“We knew the software inside out and did it before anyone else. We risked everything, coming out of steady employment with a steady salary. Our credit cards were maxed to the limit.”

His background gave him the drive he needed: “You have to be a bit uncomfortable to take a risk and make a go of it. You have nothing to lose.”

“We did have sleepless nights at times, like when the car broke down and you didn’t know if you could afford to fix it. We were working harder and harder but all our travelling, all our expenses were on the credit cards.”

They knew they needed some high-profile clients to make the business grow. So Ritchie, a lifelong Liverpool FC fan, contacted the club and persuaded them they could provide a better service than what they currently had. The club signed up immediately.  A week later Everton FC phoned up and asked if they could sign up too.

“Within three months, the Alliance and Leicester, British Red Cross and Cheshire Police had all signed up too,” says Ritchie. “It grew from there.”

Within nine years, they had moved to larger offices and employed 16 others, travelling all over the world, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, Dubai and Toronto, as the business expanded.

They had built up a high value, covetable business which a number of others wanted to buy: “After nine years, we decided to sell. There were a lot of cross-selling opportunities, it was the right time.”

It was during negotiations with cloud company iomart, which eventually offered them £23m, that Ritchie’s house in Ripon was flooded:  Having grown up used to dealing with chaos at home, Ritchie simply arranged for the renovations to be done and moved into the Cedar Court Grand, where celebrity David Gest lived in the next penthouse.

“I needed something straightforward and easy. I have never let what has been happening at home bother me, I just shut it all out.  During the negotiations, they would never have known my home had been flooded.”

Suddenly having millions of pounds in the bank hasn’t changed him: “It is not like a lottery win when it drops on your lap. You have worked hard, you know what the business is worth. Emotionally, I didn’t feel attached to it.

“Having that amount of money in the bank doesn’t make life any different. Life was good before, life is good afterwards,” he says.

“Now things a lot more relaxed. Since I’m travelling a lot less, I have time to do the stuff I enjoy. “

He plans to stay in this home forever and doesn’t enjoy traditional holidays, because he gets bored lazing on a beach or lying by a pool: “If didn’t go on holiday again, it wouldn’t bother me. I love my life here. I had had enough of living in a five star hotel. After a while, I just wanted somewhere where I could relax, have friends round and make a salad sandwich or have beans on toast if I wanted.”

He is happy to devote most of his time to his horses now and is building eight new stables, complete with an equine treadmill, at his property: “I’m up early with the animals, not sitting around every day watching telly,” he laughs.

He and Simon bought their first horse, Ancient Cross, five years ago because they were working  hard and needed something to do outside work in order to relax. When it won its first major race at York, they were hooked. One of Ritchie’s horses Moviesta, which he part owns with football manager Harry Redknapp, went on to win the King George Group 2 sprint at Glorious Goodwood last year, and was third by two heads in the Group 1 Prix De L'Abbaye in Paris in October

He now sponsors one of the country’s top jockeys, Paul Mulrennan: “I have had fantastic success working with Paul. A lot of hard work goes in behind the scenes which means we enjoy the winners even more ,” says Ritchie, who is planning to start breeding race horses in the near future: “It is hard to make money out of it. You have got to do it because you enjoy it.”

Ritchie is also trustee of a local charity, Jennyruth Workshops, which offers adults with learning difficulties work experience and life skills, and gives career talks at his old school.

But he doesn’t plan to work again: “I have never been so sure or so comfortable about anything.  I don’t have any big ambitions, I have achieved everything I wanted to. I want to spend more time seeing friends and being with close family. They are much more important to me than material things.

“My grandparents were so important in my life and I wanted to return that.”

He does hope to have a family of his own one day: “When you haven’t really had a family life you do want to have your own kids and give them some of the things you didn’t have when you were growing up. But I wouldn’t want them to be ruined by money.”