Company History

In 1950, company founder Egon Michels laid the foundation for the current success of our company. As a factory representative for ATLAS in the Rhineland, at that time he founded his own base in Geldern on the Lower Rhine as the first "ATLAS distribution trader" (AVH in short).

Other branches in Essen (1972) and in Bergheim (1979) were added over the years. At the same time, the product range was constantly expanding. While initially the range only consisted of excavators and loader cranes from ATLAS, later loaders, mini excavators, vibratory plates, rammers, compressors, and much more were added.

Today we are among the full-liners in the construction market when it comes to ground motion and material handling. The truck division has also continuously expanded. In addition to the initial "farm loaders", over time skip loaders, roll-off tippers, and tail lifts were also added. Today the manufactured in-house trucks, planks, and box bodies complete the range for the transport sector.

At all sites, customers could and can find contact people who provide assistance in terms of sales, rental, spare parts, and service. Renting construction machinery in particular has gained tremendous importance in recent years.

Around 400 machines, including more than 100 excavators of 1 to 33 t, are available. In total, we have marketed more than 16,000 products such as excavators, wheel loaders, cranes, and container handling systems. 110 employees are involved with professional and reliable customer support in sales, service, and customer satisfaction.

Joachim Michels and Rolf Michels are now managing the company in the second generation.

Seit Mitte des Jahres 2022 hat nun auch die dritte Generation Einzug in das Familienunternehmen gehalten: Max Michels (M.Sc.), Jahrgang 1996, unterstützt als Assistent der Geschäftsleitung im Bereich Fahrzeugtechnik die Umgestaltung der Fertigungsprozesse im Hinblick auf Effizienz- und Qualitätsverbesserung.

Somit ist für die Zukunft ein erster Schritt in Richtung Kontinuität und Kreativität getan.

Das Michels-Logo seit 2016