Poclain is a family company founded by Georges Bataille in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in the 1930s, then developed by his sons Pierre and Claude Bataille, with help from Jacques and Bernard Bataille.

Poclain produced excavator

Excavator

Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...

s, and was leader on the French and world market thanks to a revolutionary hydraulic motor

Hydraulic machinery

Hydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to...

. The Batailles were forced to sell the company to Case

Case Corporation

Case Corporation was a manufacturer of construction and agricultural equipment. In 1999 it merged with New Holland to form CNH Global, a Fiat Group division...

in 1974, an American company, and only kept the Hydraulics division.

Poclain make Radial Piston Hydraulic Motors which are mostly used in industrial and off highway vehicles, their biggest competition in this area is Rexroth of Scotland who are now a subsidiary of Bosch AG.