KBB manufacturer and supplier Hill’s Panel Products (HPP) has appointed Kevin Cashmore as its new national sales manager.

He joins the family-owned business from Blackheath Products, where he was senior business development manager for 10 years.

Taking charge of HPP’s nationwide network of area sales managers, as well as the office-based sales team at its Oldham HQ.

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The move reunites Cashmore with HPP’s Deputy MD Gareth Evans – the pair having worked together on two previous occasions over the past 25 years.

Cashmore said: “Gareth and I first worked together at a timber and decorative products firm called FG Chambers in the late 90s, early 2000s, and then we went on to open a branch of a firm called Premier Forest Products, which was a timber merchants looking to get into decorative products, which Gareth and I both knew about.

“We’ve kept in touch over the years as we became friends as well as colleagues and when Gareth told me about the job at HPP, he explained where the company is at, where it wants to go, and how he needed a like-minded person to come on board and support them in everything this incredible company is working to achieve.”

Speaking about the KBB industry, Cashmore said says: “I think it is still in a difficult place. Covid had a massive impact in that four years’ worth of trade was squeezed into two-and-a-half years, giving a false sense of business.

“Since then, consumers haven’t spent as much, particularly because of the cost of living.

“That hits independent home showrooms, although the trade side, contractors, is doing much better because the large-scale projects are happening.

“I was at a trade merchants’ event earlier this year and the feeling was that the first half of 2025 would be tough, but the second half would pick up – they even came up with a throwaway slogan “Survive ‘25, get your kicks in ‘26!”

Hill’s Panels Products has recently bid farewell to long-serving employee Trevor Ross who has retired.