Our story
We are revolutionising our chassis design, optimising strength and cutting down production cost. Autobedrijf Joost also invests heavily in green technology by introducing Colibus on the Benelux-market.
While production continues to increase, additional modals with 22-24 seats (based on Mercedes Sprinter) are added to the products.
The first Atego Euro6 schoolbus is produced and homologated. The schoolbus design by Autobedrijf Joost makes use of the existing tipping-cab with slight adaptations.
The expansion of the facilities continued and the construction of a new workshop, spanning 2500m², was completed. Autobedrijf Joost, now covers over 15000m² of workshop! New spraybooths were installed, accommodating a full-length Mercedes Atego. Mercedes also launches a new Vario with Euro5 engine.
Production of low-floor buses based on the new Mercedes Sprinter model, commissioned by De Lijn. In order to accommodate the production growth, the construction of an additional workshop began. Adding an additional surface area of 6000m² to the existing plant.
Design and production of an entirely new model based on the Mercedes Atego Campusbus was started.
1999 saw the introduction of the schoolbus in Autobedrijf Joost. The vehicles were based on the Mercedes Vario. This was also the time were production of modified low-floor Mercedes Sprinter buses started. These were commissioned by De Lijn, the largest public transportation company in Belgium. To be able to keep up with the growing business, the Peugeot dealership was closed.
In 1995 Autobedrijf Joost NV was founded and saw Joost Lauwyck as CEO. Father and son continued the growth of company and expanded the working area to 6500m². The newly founded company's main activity was the manufacturing of shopping carts and customising Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat vans. Meanwhile the Peugeot dealership was continued by the family.
Mr.Marcel Lauwyck was a Peugeot-dealer. After a few years he started a small-scale production of shopping trolleys.
