With a clear generational transition, the Lower Saxony-based systems manufacturer Höcker Polytechnik GmbH is starting the year 2026: since January, Lisa Marie Höcker has strengthened the company’s management team, continuing the third generation in an executive role within the family-owned business.
For more than three decades, Frank Höcker, son of company founder Günther Höcker, and Christian Vennemann have shaped the company’s development. Since 1993, they have continuously expanded the business founded in 1962, built international sales and service networks, and strategically invested in production capacities and their relocation. What began as a small workshop with three employees has grown into an internationally operating company with more than 400 employees in the group today.
Planned generational change instead of disruption
While succession processes in family businesses are often associated with uncertainty, Höcker Polytechnik deliberately chose a structured transition. The succession was prepared early to enable Lisa Marie Höcker to gain comprehensive and in-depth insight into the company.
After completing her Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Management at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, she worked in all areas of the company starting in 2018. At the same time, she completed a part-time Master’s degree in Sales Management, which she finished in 2023. The combination of practical experience and academic education laid the foundation for her later leadership role.
She subsequently took over the marketing department, developed new strategic approaches, and provided impulses particularly in corporate culture, communication, and employee development. Since then, she has been actively driving topics such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, and sustainable corporate management.
Leadership as a trio – with a strong values focus
With her appointment to the management board, the previous duo becomes a trio. Lisa Marie Höcker initially takes responsibility for marketing and human resources. Her leadership approach focuses on a modern corporate culture based on openness, collaboration, and appreciation.
“Taking responsibility for Höcker Polytechnik means for me not only continuing a legacy, but actively shaping it,” she explains. Her goal is to preserve the family business’s traditional strengths while also opening up new markets and driving innovative, customer-focused solutions. Automated and efficient processes are intended to help conserve resources and secure competitive advantages.
Internationally growing mid-sized company
Höcker Polytechnik, headquartered in Hilter am Teutoburger Wald, is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of extraction and filtration systems, including for the packaging printing industry. At the site near Osnabrück, more than 300 employees – including around 30 apprentices – develop and produce air-cleaning systems and waste disposal solutions for industrial processes. The company’s revenue in 2025 was just under €50 million.
The company has also expanded internationally: in Strzegom, Poland, its subsidiary DPU has been producing components such as fans and dust extractors since 1991 and now employs around 120 people. In 2024, a new production hall with a modern machine park was commissioned there.
Another milestone will follow in 2026 with the opening of a production site in Thomasville, North Carolina. This expansion strengthens the company’s presence in North America and improves service, logistics, and spare parts supply for that market.
Technological expertise as a growth driver
The portfolio of Höcker Polytechnik includes filtration systems, dust extractors, briquetting presses, industrial shredding systems, as well as conveying and control technology. A key factor in the added value of these systems is the interaction of intelligent control solutions.
Through the use of modern PLC programming, sensor-based monitoring, and increasingly artificial intelligence, processes are made more efficient, resources are conserved, and manpower requirements are reduced. In combination with IIoT and cloud technologies, networked systems are created that provide customers with additional competitive advantages.
The solutions are used across numerous industries – from the wood and furniture industry to printing companies and metal processing, as well as recycling and environmental technology.
Stable foundation for the future
With more than 60,000 installed systems worldwide and an international network of over 30 partners, the company is strongly positioned globally. The combination of long-standing experience and continuous innovation forms the basis for future development.
The generational change therefore does not mark a break, but a consistent continuation of the company’s history – with new impulses for an increasingly dynamic industry.
