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The founder of Puch Motorcycle Manufacturing Company, Johann Puch, worked as an agent for Humber vehicles. He was also a manufacturer of Styria Safety Bicycles which were built in a small workshop based in Graz, Austria. Johann Puch founded his first company in 1889 and called it Johann Puch & Comp., with a workforce of 34 employees. Apart from producing bicycles, Puch also manufactured motorcycles, mopeds and automobiles.

Puch produced its first scooter in 1952, 48 years after it was officially launched. The well known Puch 500 was build and produced in 1957 and was quickly followed by other popular models such as 150, 175, 250 SG and 250 SGS.

In 1906, the company began producing the famous two-cylinder Puch Voiturette. In 1909, a Puch automobile set a new world record for high-speed at 130.4 km/h. By the year 1912, the company had 300 cars and 16000 motorcycles to its name.

In 1912, Johann Puch retired and was appointed as the company’s honorary president.  Automobiles manufactured by Puch did well at the pre-war Österreichische Alpenfahrt rally. From 1913, the Type VIII Alpenwagen, a four-cylinder 38 PS machine was manufactured in Graz.

As the company grew, it designed and manufactured twenty-one types of cars, buses, lorries and military issues vehicles as well as limousines for the Imperial Habsburg family. The company was also contracted to build vehicles for the Austro-Hungarian Army. The car production division failed as a result of the War which caused a lot of problems for the automobile market.

In 1928, Puch merged with Austro-Daimler to become a part of the newly formed Austro-Daimler-Puchwerkwe business.  Later on in 1934, there was a further merger with Steyr AG to create Steyr-Daimler-Puch. During the Second World War, Puch’s factories were used to manufacture guns for the country’s army.

Later, Puch shipped its motorcycles to the North American market where they were marketed under a variety of aliases including Sears and Allstate. The company shut its doors in 1987 and was acquired by Piaggio.  The Puch badge is a green and white chequered badge. Green and white are the colors of the Steyr town flag and look a lot like the BMW badge which features the colors of the Bavarian flag.