I first met Alan when he was at Stewardson Powder Handling, I was a young whippersnapper finding my feet in industrial sales and went to see him and Tim to discuss bin activators. He was so funny then and put me at ease straight away. We worked a fair few bits during my time at Braby and then at Genesis. A Braby one I remember ( and I got a right telling off from my boss then for going to help Al ) was he was working on a starch silo in Northampton and I’d sold the spares for it - including the belly band sleeve as he called them. It was never a one man job so I went to help him, we had a right laugh, got covered in starch, got rained on and went in the factory which was red hot - remember him saying we’d better get changed before it goes hard or they’ll be shipping us home on a flatbed truck ! Best one was at a bakery in north wales. Our first silo and conveying job as genesis, Al helped on the install and was a god send with his experience and calmness ( something which probably went unseen by many ). We were in the canteen having a brew when all of a sudden we see white smoke everywhere outside, followed by the owners shouting ! The tanker driver, delivering flour, hadn’t coupled up right and flour was everywhere ! We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry until the owner ( still shouting ) said there were local MPs due in an hour and we needed to clear it all up ! There we were brush in hand trying to clean up someone else’s mess and he was just whistling along laughing away - that calmness again ! You’ll be surely missed Al and I hope your friends and family take some comfort from this in what will be a sad occasion. Ironically I’m on a commissioning and install job this week so I’ll have a moment for you - with a smile :-) rest easy my friend xx