Why Choose H.G. Makelim Co.?

H.G. Makelim Co. is comprised of a team of experienced professionals working toward common goals. These include:

• helping you find the best solutions to your product needs,
• providing valuable technical expertise, and
• meeting your service, delivery and production requirements.

Achieving these goals requires a commitment to understanding your business, service and production challenges. H.G. Makelim Co. has been meeting these challenges since 1922. Today, we supply commercial customers with a variety of products including industrial engines, diesel fuel injection products, diesel test equipment, heavy duty electrical products and generator sets.

When you rely on H.G. Makelim Co., you and your customers benefit from training, service and technical support that can only be provided by a company with superior resources. We have invested in the personnel and facilities needed to deliver a full range of support services. In addition, our dealer/service organizations provide fast, professional response that is second to none.

A History of Customer Service

In 1922, Howard G. Makelim began servicing magnetos in small repair shop located in San Francisco. His high-quality service became so well known, major manufacturers such as Eisman, Wild, Robert Bosch, American Bosch and Fairbanks Morse appointed the company as a service dealer for their respective lines. In the 1930s, Howard determined there was a need for high-quality magneto test equipment. He began developing his own product line of Makelim Magneto Test Equipment, many of which are still operating in service dealers today.

The business continued to grow throughout the 1950’s and H.G. Makelim Co. became one of the country’s largest American Bosch dealers. In 1957 Howard sold the company to Bob Hess, who had worked with his father who was President of American Bosch. Bob’s vision was to expand the company into a diversified automotive and industrial parts distributorship. To achieve this goal he began acquiring additional product lines to distribute.

In 1958, H.G. Makelim Co. became the first central distributor for Robert Bosch. And, in 1959, H.G. Makelim Co. was awarded the Kohler engine line. As the company continued to grow throughout the 1960’s, it became necessary to find a larger facility, and the company moved to South San Francisco. Growth spurred another move to its existing South San Francisco headquarters facility in 1984. A year later the company expanded its operations into Southern California.

In 1991, Bob Hess retired, and his sons, Jim and Chuck Hess, took over leadership of Makelim. The company took on a new vision, “to add significant value to the products and services that we provide our customers.” The company has since doubled its sales and was recently awarded the Colorado and Wyoming territories for Kohler and ZPP/Nissan Engines. They now have a distribution center and headquarters in South San Francisco, CA, an engine packaging facility in Modesto, CA, a sales office in Anaheim, CA, and they opened a distribution center and engine packaging facility in Aurora, CO.

H.G. Makelim Co...Committed to Total Customer Satisfaction

H.G. Makelim Co. is a service-oriented company with a tradition since 1922 of providing  customers with outstanding service. Our goal is simple – we want to be the best distributor for customers to do business with. To accomplish this, we rely heavily on customer feedback and a knowledgeable, experienced staff of professionals.