Company Profile: Hoja & German Reliability

Speciality fryer maker Hoja Food Tec is probably wider known for its continuous machinery for making potato pancakes. Sales Manager Svjetlana Krznaric paid company owner Jorg Hoha avisit in Schwarmstedt, near Bremen.

It was a wintry, cold day when Potato Processing International visited the family-owned business in Schwarmstedt but the welcome form Jorg Hoja was warm and friendly. We were curious to learn about this well-known company, famous for supporting 80 per cent of the German market with production lines for a special and tasty product - potato pancakes.

Since 1982 Hoja has been a reliable and innovative partner in food technology and special engineering. Continuous intensive research and development has made Hoja into one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial frying technology. Products like potato pancakes, pancakes, crêpes, blini, meat balls, rissoles, hamburger, steak, chicken, vegetables, naan bread, pita breads and many more are made on Hoja machines to the highest quality.

Jorg HojaSettled into Hoja's office, we asked him some questions about the business.

What is your core business?

As you know, we are family owned business, and each machine is designed, planed, manufactured, assembled and tested here in our factory in Schwarmstedt.

Do you build everything completely 'inhouse'?

All development and all technological parts are ours and our customers turn to us if they are interested in inventions which they want to try. Since we were founded, we initially started with potato pancake machines. Potato pancake is German – Austrian – Polish – Czechian – Ukrainian – Belorussian and on this special product we are the world market leader. But, we also supply the entire line – from pealed potato to fully packed product, Products for McCain, Aviko, Farmfrites and many others are produced on our machines, 80 per cent of potato pancakes in German supermarkets are coming from our machines.

Potato pancakes are Hoja's core market

For the last test with a big customer we set up an entire small production line from potato peeling, to washing, cooking, blanching, cutting, drying, over to mix preparation, later on frying and cooling, it was really a 'cute' operation.

Having food standards in mind, how much room in the market has for machinery producers who do not follow certain standards?

What I think is good in our industry is that there are certain standards you have to follow. So if you want to sell your final product that means you are dealing with certified and well known machinery supplier. Quality standards are set high and towards famous names within the industry. Our customers need to supply supermarkets so our machinery needs to 'work'. In case of emergency, we have to be available to assist quickly 24 hours 7 days in a week – solving a problem in 3 hours. So this is the key point when talking about covering standards.

Read the full story, with insights on last year's highlights, the impact of the economic crisis and business forecasts, in the current issue of Potato Processing International.