Nicolas Industrie

Founded in 1855 as a manufacturer of agricultural trailers, Nicolas developed itself as a heavy haulage trailer specialist in Europe. In 1971 Nicolas delivered its one of first hydraulic modular trailer, consisting of two modules of 10 axles each, 80 wheels in total with a combined payload of 600 tons.^[2] In 1973 Nicolas became licensed distributor of York Trailers UK, one of largest trailer manufacturer in the time^[3] by this time the company manufactured self powered heavy hauler units which were capable of moving 500 tons with help of a girder frame on multiple axles operated by a crew of three was named the biggest trailer ever built at the time.^[4]

In 1979 Nicolas developed Tractomas, a ballast tractor lineup which was specially manufactured for oversize load transportation, powered by 400+ horsepower engines with payload of 200 tonnes and offered with either 6x6 or 8x8 configuration.^[5] In 1989 Nicolas manufactured its first SPMT named HY-SPEC (Hydraulic, Self Powered, Electronically Controlled) unit consisted of two modules of 4 and 6 axles configuration with total of 80 wheels with payload of 300 tons with help of a Deutz 450hp engine without employing a ballast tractor.^[6]

In 1994 Otto Rettenmaier acquired Nicolas and since then the company has been under the wing of Tii group which also owns Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik and Kamag Transporttechnik.^{[citation needed]}

From 190 Employees in 2012, it now has below 40 employees and stopped all production, which made its glory, in order to focus of after sales for Tii group. A serious hit for the local economy since Nicolas was the biggest industry in the French "département Yonne".^{[citation needed]}

• corporate website