"Now we speak Swiss German, too"

On 22 January 2009, the plant contractor HÖCKER Polytechnik from Hilter in Lower Saxony opened a new branch in Lucerne, Switzerland. The new HÖCKER Polytechnik AG which has been especially established for the purpose will continue the "Elutherm" business activities of the Swiss company "Etienne AG" from the city of Lucerne, from February 2009 onwards. By doing so, HÖCKER Polytechnik once again expands its position as one of the leading European suppliers of air-extraction and filter systems, briquetting presses and paint mist extraction systems and devices for practically every branch of manufacturing industry. In more than 20 years of cooperation up to the present day, Etienne AG and Höcker Polytechnik have together installed numerous extraction and filter plants for tradesmen and industrial customers all over Switzerland. For the Lucerne HÖCKER Polytechnik AG this wide customer base represents both an obligation and an opportunity for the future at one and the same time.

By taking on the greater part of the Elutherm employees, HÖCKER Polytechnik AG is also acquiring their know-how and long years of experience. In practically all departments, our present customers will be able to talk to their usual contacts. As a result, an uninterrupted maintenance and repair service for all those machines and plant already installed by Etienne AG is ensured, and the professional attention and handling of all orders in progress and future ones are guaranteed.

Besides the wood-processing sector, HÖCKER Polytechnik's Swiss branch will in the future be the ideal point of contact for the paper-manufacturing industry in Switzerland. Because HÖCKER Polytechnik is the German market leader when it comes to extraction and filter systems, as well as pneumatic conveying systems for the carton and corrugated fibreboard industry. The appropriate plant systems from the Höcker product line will extend the Swiss HÖCKER Polytechnik AG's range.


About Etienne AG:
Until recently Etienne AG from Lucerne was one of the leading Swiss suppliers of wood-processing machinery, production facilities and a wide range of comprehensive services to the wood-processing sector. As a result of the structural and technological changes in the wood-processing sector, Etienne AG carried out far-reaching restructuring measures in order to guarantee the future of its business activities in the interests of the sector, and to secure jobs: the company divested itself of the four operating divisions (to HÖCKER Polytechnik AG among others) to continue them as independent companies. The "Technocenter" in Horw and more than 50 jobs out of a total of around 60 will be maintained.

About HÖCKER Polytechnik:
HÖCKER Polytechnik is the market leader when it comes to extraction and filter systems, as well as pneumatic conveying systems for the carton and corrugated fibreboard industry in Germany, and one of the leading European suppliers of briquetting presses and dust extraction systems and devices for practically every branch of manufacturing industry. Established in 1962, in the past 45 years the company has built over 40 000 plants - all over the world. HÖCKER Polytechnik is continually in search of better solutions, with two aims in mind: optimum cost-effectiveness and maximum operational safety. Taking this motto as its basis, the company builds systems for industry and craftsmen which marry the knowledge and experience acquired in more than 45 years of research, development and practice - from mobile dust extractors, right up to large filter units with a capacity of more than 600 000 m3 / hour.

In the year 2008, over 165 employees (including 15 trainees) at the headquarters in Hilter and in the many branches at home and abroad, in our own sales offices and representatives, from Kiel to Lucerne, from Rotterdam to Breslau, achieved a turnover of more than 30 million Euros.

After Poland and Russia, Switzerland is now the third country with its own sales company.


Contact:
Heiner Kleine-Wechelmann
HÖCKER POLYTECHNIK GmbH
Extraction and disposal systems
Borgloher Straße 1
49176 Hilter
Telephone: +49 (0)5409 / 405-133
Fax: +49 (0) 5409/405-555
E-Mail: info@hpt.net
Website: www.hoecker-polytechnik.de