By MELISSA HART
Michigan Correspondent

ADRIAN, Mich. — It’s official: Dan Hupp of Dan’s Farm Supply in Adrian, for the first time in 38 years, has a boss. Signing the papers on April 30, Hupp and his wife, Billie, are one step closer to retirement, having sold the business to Archbold Equipment of Archbold, Ohio.

Serving Lenawee, Washtenaw and Monroe counties as the main Case International Harvester dealership, Dan’s Farm Supply has been a landmark south of Adrian for nearly 40 years and will remain there – along with its 27 employees. “We’ve had a lot of faithful employees over the years, many of them have been here for 30 years or better, and some have been here for 20 years or more,” Hupp said, explaining they were a big consideration with the Hupps’ decision to sell to Archbold.

They wanted the dealership to remain, along with the successful team of employees. Over the years, the farm equipment business has been good to Hupp and his family.

“Any one of us who has been around this long has seen the (19)70s, which was really good, much like today. But I also remember 1980 and ’81, when it was pretty poor, too,” he said. “We survived those times, but we are in a really different time right now. This should last for a while, but the good times don’t last forever.”

Being in the business, Hupp has developed good friends and said that’s what he will miss the most: “I’ve enjoyed a lot of customers and we’ve had a lot of nice people we’ve done business with.” One thing he won’t miss is the pressure of being the single owner of the business.

“I won’t miss the pressure or worrying about when it’s going to rain or not going to rain,” he said, “and I won’t worry when I see a customer driving down the road on a new green tractor.”

Although Billie was the bookkeeper for 30 years at the dealership, she has been semi-retired for a few years. Still stockholders of the company, both Dan and Billie will retire on April 30, 2012, and plan on traveling to places they’ve never been and enjoying summers at their cottage on a nearby lake, a little more time on the golf course and volunteering to give back to the community that has been so good to them.

Dan’s Farm Supply deals in Case IH, Kubota, Bobcat and ProPower, along with turf and contractors equipment Exmark and Cub Cadet.