From the end of the 1st quarter of 2024, Jens Hantel will take over leadership of the "National and International Trade" department at WILKA Schließtechnik GmbH, succeeding Wolf Sausmikat. The company reports that Wolf Sausmikat (63) and Jens Hantel (38) made the necessary preparations for the transfer at a very early stage. Already in 2022, Jens Hantel took over responsibility for internal and external sales and could thus already prepare for his task in 2024. Wolf Sausmikat will remain with WILKA until the end of 2024, after which he will eventually retire at the end of the year. Until then, he will deal with important internal projects.
Wolf Sausmikat began his successful career with WILKA in 1988 and became the face of WILKA within the industry. After 16 years as head of the Closing Systems Department, he took over as proxy for the Sales Department in 2004. Under his leadership, "his" sales department has made a significant contribution to the very positive development of the traditional Velbert-based company over the past two decades.
Jens Hantel had already been working within object processing and object monitoring at WILKA for 12 years, accumulating vast experience.
Thanks to his many years working with the construction hardware trade and safety specialty stores, he has a great understanding of the different market segments within the trade and thus already has a tremendous knowledge of the industry.
The WILKA management offered the two gentlemen a generous period of time to be able to visit key customers together in person even before the official starting shot. Thus 2023 for Sausmikat and Hantel was marked by numerous contacts with important customers in the DACH and Benelux regions, where they were able to personally announce the succession by Jens Hantel. Such preparation of a successor will be rare nowadays in the industry, but is of great importance for the family business WILKA.
About WILKA Schließtechnik GmbH
WILKA Schließtechnik GmbH is a sixth-generation led family business in the locks and hardware business, based in Velbert, Germany. As a manufacturer of locks, cylinders, locking systems and electronic access solutions, WILKA has more than 17,000 square meters of production area and its own research and development department. WILKA was founded in 1865 and today has about 300 employees.