About us - the pod GmbH
pod - Your manufacturer for
POS displays
Founded over a hundred years ago as an arts and crafts studio, pod GmbH is now known and active throughout Europe as a company for the production of POS displays and packaging.
The company and its employees develop and produce high-quality promotional displays and packaging on site in Braunschweig, assemble them with your goods on request and then prepare them for dispatch.
We would be happy to advise you on site at your company.
The story behind pod
We can look back with pride on more than 100 years of company history. Heinrich Michehl laid the foundation stone in 1907 with the establishment of the Michehls Atelier, which soon became the first screen printing company in Germany.
How it all began
In 1907, Heinrich Michehl founded Brunswick’s oldest advertising materials company at Humboldtstraße 3 under the name “Michehls Kunstgewerbliches Atelier”.
Art and culture as clients
Initially, the studio concentrated on advertising painting, but commissions in the field of theater painting and stage design soon followed, as a letterhead from 1926 attests. The studio became particularly well known for its stage designs at the Braunschweig Operetta Theater and for the production of cinema posters.
Outdoor advertising with that special something
The studio provided the three Ufa theaters in Braunschweig at the time with new outdoor advertising every week, providing information about the latest films. In addition, the portfolio also included advertising media such as shop window advertising, in some cases in movable form, gable advertising, floats for parades, advertising stands for exhibitions, glass banners and much more.
The first displays are created
On February 1, 1936, Hermann Michehl, a nephew of the founder, and Heinrich Bethmann, the company’s first employee, acquired the advertising studio for 15,000 Reichsmark, payable in weekly installments of 31 Reichsmark each. The production facility moved to Nordstraße 7, where the cinema advertising was painted on wooden frames with linen coverings and then transported to the individual cinemas on wooden carts to be hung up on site and further decorated as required. From 1938, the first displays were produced on a small scale.
With the acquisition of the screen printing license, Michehls Atelier was the first screen printing company in Germany.
Post-war period
During the Second World War, entrepreneurs continued to produce advertising materials even under the most difficult conditions. Between 1946 and 1950, Heinrich Bethmann even continued to run the business alone, as Hermann Michehl was a prisoner of war until 1951. It was not until around 1950 that life had normalized enough to allow the company to develop further.
The time of removals
The most difficult problem in the 1950s was finding a new production facility. Within 14 years, the company produced at five different locations in Braunschweig, for example from 1950 to 1957 in Eschenburgstraße and Celler Straße.
Screen printing as a source of income
In the decade of the economic upswing, the lettering of exterior facades, company vehicles and vehicles of Braunschweiger Verkehrs AG was an important topic for Michehl’s studio – in addition to cinema advertising. At the end of the 1950s, the company produced large quantities of signs using screen printing. Under the most primitive conditions, the employees prepared the screens for printing in bathtubs at home.
In 1953, the Association of German Screen Printers was founded in Hanover with the help of the two Braunschweig experts Michehl and Bethmann.
Expansion to include offset printing
In 1957, at the time of the 50th anniversary celebrations, production took place at two locations, in Sackweg/Mittelweg and in Celler Straße. After a fire in 1958, the studio moved to the old streetcar depot on Eisenbütteler Straße. This is where the foundation stone for offset printing was laid at Michehls Atelier. With the acquisition of the offset press in 1959, Rotaprint R 30 1-color in DIN A3 format could be printed at a speed of 4,000 sheets per hour.
Development
On January 1, 1960, the studio moved into the newly constructed company building at Weinbergweg 36, a new building with approx. 900 square meters of office and production space on a 2,312 square meter site.
Just seven years later, the company building on Weinbergweg was bursting at the seams, so the “Auf dem Anger” building in Bienrode was a welcome expansion. From then on, there was a division of tasks between the two plants.
The employees in Weinbergweg were responsible for lithography, screen and offset printing. The colleagues in Bienrode produced displays and had to take care of the processing and shipping tasks.
In 1974, Peter Michehl, who had been with the company since 1961, took over the management from his father. Lutz Bethman Sr. joined the company in 1948 and took over the management from his father in January 1968.
For the sake of the environment - pod focuses on sustainability
As a family-run company, we don’t just think about today, but above all about tomorrow. Our values and our commitment to sustainability shape our actions from generation to generation.
Our print products are produced in an environmentally friendly way to ensure sustainable production of your displays. We pay strict attention to legal requirements when purchasing and disposing of our materials.
Together we can strengthen your brand at the point of sale and shape a sustainable future.
Integrated management system for quality, environment, occupational health and safety and food safety
Climate Partner
FSC® certifications by TÜV NORD for the product chain
A company with a future
As a company with more than one hundred years of company tradition, pod GmbH is an attractive employer in the Braunschweig region and offers career opportunities in the following areas
- Development and construction,
- Production in the area of further processing,
- Processing in the commercial area and
- Sales and field service.
