Car seat manufacturer Recaro files for bankruptcy

Recaro, a German brand best known for supplying seats to sports car manufacturers and racing teams, has filed for bankruptcy.

The company declared bankruptcy in a German court on July 29, 2024, and officials appointed a Stuttgart-based lawyer named Holger Blümle to oversee the process. Note that not every company named Recaro is bankrupt; it’s just Recaro Automotive Seating, which makes car seats. Recaro Holding, which designs and manufactures airplane seats and gaming chairs, is not involved in the bankruptcy process.

Recaro’s car seat-making division has bounced from owner to owner over the past few years. It was purchased by Johnson Controls in 2011, according to The Drive, and sold to a Detroit-based private investment firm called Raven Acquisitions in January 2020. The statement released to announce the sale claimed that Recaro Automotive generated about $150 million in revenues during the 2019 fiscal year.

What this means for Recaro’s future isn’t clear. There’s no word on whether it will be sold, closed, or parted out. It’s also too early to tell what will happen to its 215 German employees. German magazine Auto Bild notes these men and women have “contributed to the economic stabilization of the company by waiving and postponing wages” for years, which suggests the firm’s financial problems are deeply rooted.

Alarmingly, most of these workers reportedly weren’t aware that their employer had filed for bankruptcy until the last minute, so they weren’t granted the luxury of planning their exit — and figuring out what’s next — ahead of time. IG Metall, the trade union that represents Recaro workers, has asked members of the management team and the court in charge of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings for transparency.

On a secondary level, the bankruptcy filing could affect what your next sports car looks like inside. Although founded as a coachbuilder in 1906, Recaro has specialized in sport seats since the 1960s. It has supplied seats for a long list of models including numerous new and old BMW and Porsche models, the Alfa Romeo Milano Verde, the Cadillac ATS-V, the Ford Fiesta ST, the Mazda MX-5 Miata, and the Audi R8.