Purchasing Director Alan Bolton is the latest addition to the 25-year segment of our long-service Hall of Fame.
Alan is our longest serving director outside of HPP founders and owners Stephen and Martin Hill - his addition making it a 13-strong cohort of employees who have been with us for a quarter of a century or more.
"People ask, where's 25 years gone? But it's been a blast, and it does disappear in the blink of an eye when you enjoy doing what you're doing, and enjoy working with people around you," says Alan, who came to us from Pepperl+Fuchs - one of only three jobs he's held in his working life that started aged 16 at Greenfield Paper Mill in 1978.
He adds: "I joined HPP as Purchasing Manager and I was working for the Sales Director, Simon Ogden. Together with Stephen and Martin, they had a clear idea of how they wanted the business to look in the future - starting by installing a computer system.
"Pepperl+Fuchs were already computerised, perhaps that's why they took me on, so we started researching and went to see lots of different systems before we got the De Facto system.
"When I look back, that is one of, if not the most important thing that we did as a business, because it's enabled us to grow over the years - that and the gradual accumulation of good quality staff on top of all the good quality people who were already here."
Choosing computer systems was a far cry from Alan's very early days as Office Junior at Greenfield Paper Mill, where he was taught basic accounting in the form of double entry book keeping, filling in sales ledgers, helping with pensions and payroll and even collecting rents (47p a week) from tenants living in mill-owned cottages nearby.
He remained in finance when he first joined Pepperl+Fuchs, a German-based multinational manufacturer of industrial automation products, until he was chosen to take on purchasing duties and the rest, as they say, is history.
Asked about his most cherished memories of his time here, Alan says there's too many to mention although he particularly remembers visiting Blum UK with current MD Keith Wardrope when HPP became its first million-pound-plus distributor.
"I've been very fortunate because three of the main brands that we've got, Kronospan, EGGER and Blum, have been with us right from the start, that's the vision and foresight of Stephen and Martin to have those brands in place," says Alan, who has now reduced his working week to two days.
"But over the years I've been responsible for introducing ViBO (wireworks), Reginox (sinks and taps) Finsa (MFC and flatpacks) and Sensio (lighting), among others and helped to build relationships with all our key suppliers.
"I've enjoyed working with all the products that I've been involved in purchasing, and the interaction with everybody at HPP - sales, production, logistics, transport, whatever. I've just loved coming to work and when I finally do decide to bow out that's what I'll miss."
Outside of work, Alan, who has just become a grandparent for the first time, followed his father's involvement with Dobcross bass, playing bass trombone. He was later one of the founders of the reformed Diggle Brass Band and has played at the Royal Albert Hall.
He enjoys running, particularly doing the Manchester 10k with his two grown up sons, Tom and Chris, and is now training for his second half marathon in Wilmslow this coming spring.
He's also an avid Manchester City fan, who he goes to watch with his wife Alison - who, Alan says, now has her eye on his £100 shopping voucher for joining the '25-Year Club'!