Recaro Has Filed For Bankruptcy

If you’ve been in performance cars from the likes of BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Renault, Honda, Mitsubishi, or a whole lot of other manufacturers in the last 30 years or so, there’s a very good chance that you sat in seats made by Recaro.

The German company is known as one of the foremost suppliers of car seats for the automotive and motorsport industries, but its future suddenly looks very unclear, as Autocar reports that it’s just filed for bankruptcy.

According to the report, the district court in the town of Esslingen, near Recaro’s headquarters, has approved the company for self-administration, meaning that it can continue operating and company management will remain in charge as it goes through bankruptcy proceedings. According to local media, employees were not aware of the bankruptcy prior to the news breaking.

Recaro seats in the Mk1 Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet

The shock development has come four years after the company’s purchase by Detroit-based private investment firm Raven Acquisitions. German metalworkers’ trade union IG Metall has reportedly said that it’s unaware of what this development means for the 215 employees at Recaro’s factory in southern Germany that are members.

Recaro was established in 1906 as a coachbuilder, in which guise it constructed bodies for various Mercedes, VW and Porsche models, including the 356. The 1960s saw it switch focus to seating, beginning to supply the Porsche 911 in 1965.

Recaro Podium seats in a Porsche 911

Its innovations include the first road-legal single-piece bucket seat, an early seat with speakers integrated into the headrest, and the first seat with side airbags able to be retrofitted to older cars. Through separate companies and licensing deals, Recaro also produces aircraft seats, gaming chairs and child car seats. These aspects of the business are thought to be unaffected.

So far, there’s been no official statement from Recaro itself on the news. We’ve reached out to the company for comment, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.