Wickert Maschinenbau begins passing the family business on to the next generation

Landau, Germany – Wickert Maschinenbau has begun passing the family business on to the next generation. Stephanie Wickert, 33-year-old great-granddaughter of company founder Jakob Wickert, joined the management team as Managing Director on September 1. She has headed the company alongside Stefan Herzinger since then.
Meanwhile, after 46 years as Managing Director, her father Hans-Joachim has relinquished his operational management duties and joined the Advisory Board.
The transition at top management level goes hand in hand with a redistribution of executive responsibilities. Stephanie Wickert will gradually assume all commercial responsibilities of the management board. Currently, she is responsible for human resources, marketing and corporate development. The areas of purchasing, accounting, controlling and IT will follow. Stefan Herzinger, who has assumed responsibility for technical management from Hans-Joachim Wickert in addition to his responsibility for sales, will remain in charge of these areas for now.
Wickert Maschinenbau is doing extremely well economically at the time of the generation change. Hans-Joachim Wickert feels strongly that the company is in a solid position: “We constantly monitor what is happening in the market and continue to develop our products. This way, we succeed in combining stability and growth. Thanks to our highly skilled technicians and engineers, I have confidence that we will continue to be successful well into the future.”

With Stephanie Wickert, the fourth generation of the family is assuming responsibility of the company 121 years after it was established in 1901. She intends to focus the company more intensely than before on future technologies. Innovative industries in particular, such as the production of fuel cells, promising thermal insulation materials and semiconductors, will be increasingly acquired as customers. “An entire series of successful projects in these industries demonstrates that we have the ability to implement efficient manufacturing solutions for an array of different customers with our press systems,” explains the Managing Director.
At the same time, she wants to emphasize digital marketing and boost human resources development. “Alongside economic issues, social responsibility is close to my heart – towards our staff, society and my home region in Germany’s Southern Palatinate. This is why my goal is to continue our family business as a successful and sustainable enterprise so that I too can pass it on to future generations.”
With a background in banking, she holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in sustainable marketing and leadership. Following professional positions abroad, she has been employed in her own family business since 2018, serving as marketing manager until the end of August. She is a member of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Pfalz) General Assembly, the association “Die Jungen Unternehmer” (The Young Entrepreneurs) and the Wirtschaftsjunioren Südpfalz.

Mr. Wickert, who has now joined the Advisory Board, assumed leadership of the company in 1976. During his 46 years at the helm, the company enjoyed a major upswing. He launched numerous innovations, among others initiating the development and production of clean room presses for the pharmaceutical industry and fully automated heat treatment systems for the automotive industry.
Over the course of their many years of cooperation, Stefan Herzinger and Hans-Joachim Wickert successfully established five new production halls while increasing the number of employees from 12 to just under 200.