Höft & Wessel – 30 years in business

A look down memory lane shows that many elements from our early foundation phase are continuous features of our success that have been preserved as trademarks to this day – even if the small high-tech IT construction company going back to the early years has meanwhile become an international conglomerate.

The Company’s most remarkable permanent fixtures primarily include its substantial innovative power, the integration of state-of-the-art technology and the search for pragmatic solutions that simultaneously facilitate easy handling and operation of our devices.



All this is underscored by continuity and loyalty of the Company’s employees. For instance, all of these gentlemen (from left to right; standing: Lutz-Rainer Lay, Gerhard Frömming, seated: Eberhard Masch, Jörg Wittler, Heinrich Täger, Ulrich Büchler) are still part of the Company today. In those days, it was more or less considered a duty to grow a beard – not only at Höft & Wessel, but perhaps especially so. As the picture shows, the German saying that “the exception proves the rule” certainly applies once again.

Our staff evidently feel comfortable and happy. For instance, even in the early days it was possible to take a child to the company when no other form of care was available. Even dogs were occasionally seen at work. Talking to each other on a first-name basis, from the Board of Management to the warehouse worker, is another custom that has been preserved ever since the early days – strong team spirit and flat hierarchies therefore never had to be introduced at Höft & Wessel; these existed from the very beginning.



These ladies, photographed when Höft & Wessel appeared at the Hanover Fair for the first time in 1984 (when nobody had even so much as dreamt of the CeBIT), presented the HW 9016 and HW 9064, our only MDE device in those days. Incidentally, both devices exist to this day; they are received regularly for servicing (battery replacement, etc.) and still remain in service without giving rise to any complaints. Just as well, because their developers are also still in the Company to this day.



The fact that we had confined ourselves to a single product did not worry our customers, who already included the EDEKA Group – a large retail chain (again, reflecting remarkable continuity). What was of decisive importance already in those days was the deployment of leading-edge technology, as shown in this photograph of an enlarged barcode scanning stylus. In addition, products were individualised right from the outset. People used to say “There’s no such thing as can’t” – today, this notion is internationally understood as Customizing.



To the two founders of the Company in 1978, Michael Höft and Rolf Wessel (beard quota: 100 %), innovations already were never an end in themselves rather than the means to achieve it; innovations were always intended for the benefit of people. With an ingenious ability to empathise, the developers put themselves in the position of their users and actually anticipated their needs and wishes. The possibility of entering alphabetical characters using a barcode scanning stylus as shown in the photograph was what convinced our customers of this innovative technology at the time.

Codes were assigned to the characters, making it possible to write and electronically transmit text conveniently and relatively fast. Note the brown hue of the device, a fashion characteristic of the time.

Another innovation was a completely new approach to user guidance. Users were asked questions (“Data transmission? YES / NO”), which could be answered using the YES / NO keys. This was so plain and simple that it was quite revolutionary!

Especially in the early days of EDP (as IT used to be called), Höft & Wessel was a pioneering trailblazer when the primary task was to alleviate people’s fears of the new technology.

Innovation, enthusiasm for the possibilities made available by the new technology, and the convincing impact of intuitive use of equipment and service orientation have been the hallmarks of Höft & Wessel since the Company was founded. After only a few years, this philosophy enabled the founders to attract more than 20 employees and numerous satisfied customers.

In the following Skeye.Letter, the decisive milestones will be presented that have made the Company what it is today.