Founder of board, door and fittings manufacturer and distributor Hill’s Panel Products Malcolm Hill has recently celebrated his 90^th birthday.

Pictured left to right: Martin Hill, Malcolm Hill and Stephen Hill

With a background in finance and timber, Malcolm Hill was managing director at neighbouring George Hill Timber when he became HPP’s first MD following a de-merger 32 years ago.

Joined by sons Martin and Stephen, and a handful of staff who also made the move, he established HPP.

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Martin Hill said: “With his background in finance, dad took on the role of finance in the new company while Stephen and I took on the manufacturing, sales and distribution. That’s how HPP came to be.”

Supplying melamine-faced chipboard (MFC) components to the kitchen and bathroom industry, HPP had one warehouse, a trade counter, offices and ‘borrowed’ storage space, until it built a warehouse around 12 months later.

HPP now has 10 warehouses and production units at its Oldham HQ site, a trade counter in Sheffield and has a workforce approaching 200.

It recently invested £1million into a new biomass boiler upgrade to make the company greener and more efficient.

The company supplies more than 7,000 products, covering a range of full and processed sheet materials, vinyl-wrapped furniture doors and furniture fittings.

Its own brand products include Avanti doors, Glide sliding doors, and Aspect and Aspire kitchens and bedrooms and it also supplies products by brands such as Blum, Egger and Kronospan.

Following Malcolm Hill’s retirement, Martin and brother Stephen took over the running of HPP and have since been joined by managing director Keith Wardrope.

However, Malcolm Hill still has an office at the HQ, likes to keep abreast of events at the company, and visits almost daily.