trailer world issue Three 2009

Issue Three 2009 23 Portrait APR advisor would probably have ad- vised Hermann Schoch to conjure up a pretty story about “lorry love”. An emo- tional tale of how a young entrepreneur succumbed to the fascination over night, falling head-over-heels into the world of 40-tonne trucks. But that’s not Schoch’s way of doing things. Yes, he supplies the trucking fans that spend every weekend tinkering away and polishing their trucks and then turn up at the relevant events with every conceivable gimmick, orna- mentation and useful accessory. But Schoch’s relationship with trucks is primarily rational by nature: the entrepreneur’s intensive liaison with the vehicles is a business relationship which has grown organically. “Somehow it just all happened”, is how Schoch described his career from being a trained building mechanic to becoming the head of a conglomerate where most activities are fo- cused on heavy vehicles. His story includes many famous names, such as Bickel-Transport from Helmlingen in the Baden region, the family company that spawned truck racer Gern Körber. This corner of Germany, just a stone’s throw from the French border, was also home to Her- mann Schoch, who decided at the age of 23 to start his own business. Together with an old friend, he set up a sales organisati- on for Bickel’s roof spoilers which were just emerging on the market. Shortly afterwards, the young businessman moved to the Swabi- an Mountains where he became co-partner in an earth works company. This then pro- vided the foundations for today’s diversified HS-Schoch Group. Always on the go, the entrepreneur got involved in wear parts for earth moving ve- hicles and also in the sales of roof sleeping cabs, soon to be followed by bull-bars and lamp rails. Schoch’s prophecy in those days was: “The future does not consist of truck styling alone, we also need non-luxury items”. And so he got on with the produc- tion of pallet boxes, as well as founding a company in Saxony Anhalt for sheet metal processing and powder coating. Gradually the companies became system partners for the vehicle industry: the Group also works as a supplier for BPW. A few years ago, Hermann Schoch then coincidentally came across something that has far more to do with emotion than with business acumen. It all began with two sti- ckers that made him sponsor of a trial team with an invitation to a race “somewhere near Leipzig. I got the bug straightaway. I thought it was just great how the drivers kept pushing their trucks to the limit all the time. I could quite definitely see paral- lels to business life”.Meanwhile Schoch also has his own “HS Truck Trial Team” which has also become a first-class marketing in- strument. In the 2009 season, Schoch’s son Marcel and co-driver Johnny Stumpp won the European championship in the “S5” champions league of 4-axle trucks, while he himself became co-partner of the Euro- pean championship organiser OVS before the start of the 2008 season. When Marcel is out there on the track coping with the extreme demands, Schoch is the last person you’ll find among the crowd: “I can’t stand there and watch, it just all gets too much for me”, says the entrepreneur – the latest victim of truck fever. (rk) The HS-Schoch Group Marcel Schoch joined his father’s business as co-partner at the start of 2010. Schoch Junior had trained as a vehicle constructor at Neoplan, followed by a degree in business studies. It wasn’t an easy decision to take, given the current economic crisis, but he is “convinced by the company and its structure”. The Group currently has more than 500 employees, with turnover reaching a seven- figure sum on average. In the interview with trailer world, Marcel (28) and Hermann Schoch (54) are quite open about their relationship and talk about different styles of management and the difficulties facing a successor in a family company. Hermann Schoch emphasises that he hasn’t pushed his son: “it was a decision he took all by himself”. The HS-Schoch Group consists of the following companies: HS-Schoch GmbH, Lauchheim, truck accessories and truck styling HS-Schoch GmbH, Cobbelsdorf, sheet metal processing, cathodic dip/powder coating HS-Schoch e.K., Lauchheim and Cobbelsdorf, earth moving equipment: production, service, sales HRZ Blechbarbeitungs- und Handels-GbR, Oranienbaum (sheet metal processing and trading company) BRT GmbH, Braunschweig, plastics technology Metec, Tartu (Estonia), stainless steel processing, forming processes, welding Love at second sight Entrepreneur Hermann Schoch has a lot to do with trucks: he supplies trucking fans with all they need to turn a non-descript 40-tonne vehicle into a colourful, sparkling jewel. But trucks were business for Schoch – until he discovered the sport of Truck Trial. Photos:Kienberger

trailer world issue Three 2009

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