The AVN history

The ethos behind the business was clear from the moment Alfred V. Nielsen started it back in 1933. It is all about having the right products and being able to offer the expertise of some of the world’s top manufacturers of industrial products.

The parent company, Peter Krabbe Holding A/S, employs 12 people on a daily basis to look after the group administration by providing secretarial, accounting, IT and cash management services.

In addition to the parent company, the AVN Group is made up of five different subsidiaries. Each company has its own business area and capable employees who all share the same ethos: "The technical side has to be right". But that is not enough – competence and bespoke turnkey solutions are vital too.
The AVN Group has enhanced its core competences through acquisitions. Automation specialist Industri Consult A/S in Silkeborg, Denmark was taken over as long ago as 1991 to provide a strong base west of the Great Belt. The J. Raben group of companies was acquired in 2000, which led to Alfred V. Nielsen A/S and Raben Værktøj A/S, both well-known names, merging to create AVN Teknik A/S in 2001. Raben Maskiner A/S was rechristened AVN Pladeteknik A/S at the same time.

Peter Krabbe
Ex-Group Managing Director
Chairman of the
board of directors

In 2008 AVN Hydraulik A/S was split into two companies in order to maintain focus on both hydraulics for industry and hydraulics and cooling systems for wind turbines. The two companies are now called AVN Hydraulic A/S and AVN Energy A/S. The same year also saw the merger of AVN Pneumatik A/S and AVN Automation A/S, which moved in together at Bergsøesvej 14 under the name of AVN Automation A/S.

AVN Teknik A/S was eager to strengthen its position in its specialist field of cutting tools, so the decision was taken in 2008 to acquire Eg Tooling A/S, which was subsequently absorbed into AVN Teknik A/S.

The group was gradually running out of space in Brøndby, so spring 2008 saw the acquisition of the neighbouring site at Dalager 3-5. A beautiful new building for AVN Hydraulik A/S, with 2,200 m² of offices, workshops and warehousing, was opened there in January 2009. This freed up space at Dalager 1 for AVN Pladeteknik A/S, AVN Teknik A/S and Peter Krabbe Holding A/S.
AVN Energy A/S is setting up a subsidiary in Suzhou near Shanghai in 2009 in order to keep up with its customers and the wind turbine market in China. Its activities will include both sales and production of hydraulics and cooling systems from the outset.

The AVN Group employs around 200 capable, high-skilled people, many of whom have been with the business for many years. This is the most important reason for our being able to say "we know how" – no matter what task we are facing.

The AVN Group has more than 20,000 m² of premises and establishments in Brøndby and Silkeborg in Denmark, Bangalore in India and Suzhou in China.