East Westphalian building material producer in a good position thanks to diversified lines of business

August Lücking GmbH & Co. KG is one of the leading building material producers in the tri-state region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Lower Saxony. The company looks back to a history of over 120 years. Having started out as a brickworks in 1899 in succession of a farm located in Paderborn, the company currently employs 170 people at its production site in Warburg-Bonenburg and is currently being run by the fifth generation of the owner family. It has evolved into a modern, efficient industrial business operating its own fleet of vehicles. Its executive board comprises managing partner Joachim Thater, his daughter Theresa Lemke (managing director), Stephan Böddeker (managing director), and Richard Lemke (Prokurist; authorized signatory).

August Lücking manufactures about 300,000 m² of precast floor slabs and 50,000 m² of precast walls per year, as well as stairs, balconies and precast elements for custom applications. In addition, the company produces 200,000 m³ of masonry bricks per year. Since 2014, an energy management system in accordance with ISO 50001:2011 has been implemented across the business in order to leverage energy-saving potentials in an even more targeted manner while reducing resource utilization and environmental impact. In addition to memberships in several organizations of the masonry block industry, Lücking is involved in the activities of Güteschutz Beton, a quality control organization of the concrete industry, and Fachvereinigung Betonbauteile mit Gitterträgern e. V. (Association for Precast Concrete Components with Lattice Girders).

The company also hosts the annual Lücking Building Symposium where architects, property developers, construction contractors and fabricators get advice and information in a face-to-face setting. Lücking also organizes industry-specific seminars and training courses on a regular basis where over 900 specialists receive continuing training each year.

Major corporate milestones

In the summer of 1899, the ring kiln brickworks of agricultural economist August Lücking started production at his farm located on the outskirts of Paderborn. Over sixty years later, the concrete products business was added: In 1960, Wilhelm Mohn, the owner of the Ilse cement works, founded the Paderborn ready-mixed concrete works and inspired Ulrich Thater, as managing partner, to use concrete as a building material in the early years. In 1990, the manufacture of paving flags at the Paderborn concrete plant was incorporated into the newly built Ilse paver production facility, then operated jointly with Anneliese Zement AG on the former premises of the Ilse cement works on Frankfurter Weg and managed by Dipl.-Kfm. Joachim Thater, who had been with Lücking since 1986. At the same time, the manhole ring production moved to the Bonenburg concrete plant so that the company premises on Elsener Strasse could be put to new commercial use. These premises have been in the family’s ownership to the present day.

In the early 2000s, the company embarked on a path of continuous expansion: In 2003, the production of concrete counterweights weighing up to 28 tons for mobile harbor cranes manufactured by Gottwald/Demag Cranes commenced in an extension to the PZD (Platten, Ziegeldecke und Doppelwand; slabs, brick floors and double walls) facility. Just one year later, Lücking started producing reinforced-concrete double walls and equipped the carousel system of the brick floor production line with a vacuum tilting frame and another 15 production pallets to achieve a monthly output of 4,000 m². In 2007, production was relocated to a new heated factory building equipped with a 50-ton crane system.

The last important milestone to date in the company’s precast division was the installation of the new concrete mixing plant for the PZD business in 2016, which allows for the production of mixes of up to one cubic meter with a high degree of accuracy and flexibility.

Managing partner Joachim Thater explains: “Once it became clear that my daughter Theresa and son-in-law Richard would join the family business and thus establish the fifth generation of entrepreneurs, Lücking again experienced a real momentum. On the other hand, it would have been enormously difficult for me to come to terms with selling the company as the other option.”

Future-driven business provides vocational training

Authorized signatory Richard Lemke takes pride in mentioning during the guided tour through the concrete plant together with the BFT editor: “Throughout its remarkable 120-year history, our company has always remained young in spirit. Our current job openings, for example, prove that we are still growing. We are currently seeking no fewer than five full-time permanent employees, namely a machine operator for the concrete plant, a bricklayer and a machine operator for brick production, a construction carpenter for the shuttering workshop, an employee for the brick assembly plant, and a draftsman.  

We also currently offer vocational training for precast concrete workers, ceramic engineers in plant engineering and industrial electronics technicians. Those who are interested and possess the necessary qualifications can also complete their practical or final Bachelor’s or Master’s theses in R&D, production and logistics, marketing and corporate communications, or IT and digitization.”

Well-positioned thanks to diversified lines of business

Thanks to its comprehensive product range, the company will be in a good position even in a difficult business environment. “If backing brick sales decline unexpectedly, we would still benefit from our precast business, so at least one unit will always be doing well,” Richard Lemke reports. “The biggest upturn we ever experienced happened when we launched our crane counterweights. We introduced this product line not so long ago, in the early 2000s, but nowadays we equip about 100 cranes per year. So far, we’ve sold our counterweights, which weigh up to 38 metric tons, not only to regional and national customers but also to companies in Belgium, Finland, Asia and South America – and even as far away as New Zealand.”

Yet this upswing is also due to the modernization and upgrade of production equipment – Lücking makes sure that this happens at regular intervals in a gradual process. Although the Avermann and Weckenmann equipment is still running smoothly even some years after installation, major upgrades have been implemented especially in the IT field. “We have been using ERP software for many years,” Lemke continues. “Just very recently, we converted our production system to the Progress ERPbos suite, and we are very happy with it. Not least because of this state-of-the-art performance, our vision is to be able to supply the complete building shell in future, with the exception of the cast-in-place concrete foundation slab.”