In 1899 Slovanian Johann Puch (Janez Puh) founded the bicycle factory Styria. As the the bicycle factory remained in existance, another Puch plant built their first 2.25 hp head/side valve engines.
The company Puch has seen many names pass by. When founded, the company was called Johann Puch, Erste Steiermärkische Fahrrad-Fabrik AG, Graz. Later this changed into Vereinigten Styria-Fahrradwerk und Dürkopp-Werke AG. In 1909 Puch merged with Austro-Daimler, which was connected to the Steyr car factory. The companyname Hermann Göring Werke was the name of the company in 1938, when Austria was part of Nazi Germany.
In the Netherlands, Puch is most known for it's typical moped that were very popular during the sizties. The original model wa the MS 50 from 1954, which was later nicknamed Baby Puch due to, amongst others, the small petrol tank. This moped was very modern for this era with eg. telescopic suspension and a motor with forced cooling. It cost 650 guilders, which was a lot of money, but because the economic tide was improving fast, more and more youngsters could afford such a moped.
The rise of Puch started in the 'beat city' The Hage, and spread quickly accross the rest of the Netherlands. Stokvis (distributor of Puch within the Netherlands) anticipated this and introduced the Skyrider model with high steering wheen, frog shaped lights en the tool baskets on the sides of the rear fender. In other regions of the country, the white version of the skyrider became extremely popular. Nowadays there is a lot of demand for these models. Stokvis introduced the more modern Skytrack. Ths was the breakthrough for becommng the cult brand amongst artists and fans of the beatmusic. Puch's competitors, Zündapp and Kreidler Florett were popular amongst students of technical schools.
Puch remained popular in the seventies with the MV50 models. This model was taken out of production in the 80's. At the end of the seveties and early eighties, there was a big revival of the Puch models of the sixties and seventies due to the founding of the PTCN; the Puch and Tomos Club Nederland, and Den Haagschen Puch. Nowadays many small Puch clubs can be found throughout the whole of the nation. A big happening every year is the "de Kouwe Klauwe Puch and Tomos meeting" in Schevenigen.
When Johann Puch founded his company, Puch exclusively produced enignes. At the end of the fifties, Puch opened up a new market: the moped. The Austian company released it's maiden moped short after this, named the Steyr-Daimler-Puch MS 50, which was later nicknamed baby-Puch due to the fragile looks. For real Puch fans Puch history starts here. In the begnning, sales were slow; the innovative product was not selling good. But, while time evolved, mopeds were connected more and more to a different way of living. This is the moment that sales started to pick up for Puch. The demand for their mopeds was mainly comming from the west of Europe. In the Netherlands alone, more than 1,7 million mopeds were sold, of which a large portion was a Puch moped. Even when Tomos started "copying" Puch mopeds, the marketshare for Puch remained intact.
Nowadays, Puch is no longer a worldwide brand. The brand has been bought by Piaggio. The brand Puch, however, remains in existance only in the Netherlands because of it's name and history.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia