Recaro

Wilhelm Reutter founded the company in 1906 in Stuttgart. His brother Albert Reutter joined as a partner and commercial manager in 1909, the same year the company filed a patent for a folding roof with canopy — a precursor to the convertible body style. Under the name Stuttgarter Karosseriewerk Reutter & Co., the company became known during the 1920s for building limousine bodies and supplying coachwork to Daimler-Benz and Wanderer-Werke, among others.

In 1930 Reutter entered a partnership with the Porsche design office. From 1931 the company manufactured bodies for Porsche types 7, 8, 9, 12, and 32. A second plant was established in Zuffenhausen in 1936 to accommodate growth. By 1937, Reutter had received the order to produce the Volkswagen prototype pre-series VW 303. In 1939 the company employed approximately 900 people. World War II severely damaged the main factory in Augustenstraße in 1944, reducing the workforce to 94.

Production recovered after the war. In 1949 Porsche began using Reutter to build bodies for the Porsche 356 sports car. The 5,000th 356 body was completed in 1954; the 10,000th followed in 1956, the same year the company celebrated its 50th anniversary with a workforce again at 900.

In 1963 Porsche acquired the car body factory at Zuffenhausen. What remained of the Reutter business was renamed Recaro — a contraction of REutter-CAROsserie — and redirected toward high-end seat production. The company continued supplying OEM seats to Porsche and developed an aftermarket line. In 1965 Recaro presented its first sports seat at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Production facilities for what would become Recaro Aircraft Seating were established in Schwäbisch Hall from 1967. In 1969, economic pressures led the Reutter family to sell the business to a consortium of Keiper, Huber & Wagner, and Metzeler. Aircraft seat production began in 1971 under the name Recaro Aircomfort, initially under license from American manufacturer Hardman Aerospace; the first Recaro-branded aircraft seat, the Recaro 2020, was subsequently sold to Lufthansa.

In 1974, Recaro introduced its first dedicated motorsport seat, derived from its professional full-shell seat. This established Recaro as a supplier to racing drivers and performance road car manufacturers and positioned the brand alongside competitors including Sparco, OMP, Bride, MOMO Motorsports, Corbeau, Racetech, and others in the specialist seat market.

Keiper purchased all shares in Recaro in 1983 and established Keiper Recaro in Kirchheim. After restructuring in 1997, Recaro operated again as an independent company structured into legally separate divisions.

In 2004 Recaro acquired Storchenmühle, a children's seat manufacturer. In 2006 the company marked its 100th anniversary. In June 2011 Recaro sold its automotive seating division to US-based automotive supplier Johnson Controls, which became a licensed manufacturer of Recaro-branded car and commercial vehicle seats. That division subsequently passed to Adient following Johnson Controls' spin-off in 2016, then to Raven Acquisitions LLC in 2020, headquartered in Clinton Township, Michigan.

Recaro Child Safety GmbH ended operations on 31 July 2018, including the Storchenmühle brand. A global licensing agreement with Artsana Group followed, covering continued production of premium children's seats and strollers under the Recaro Kids name. Also in 2018, Recaro established Recaro eGaming, which presented a gaming seat prototype at Gamescom 2018 in Cologne and made products available from 2019.

In July 2024, Recaro Automotive GmbH filed for bankruptcy in Germany and was approved for self-administration by a German court. The insolvency proceedings applied to the German automotive entity only; Recaro Aircraft Seating, Recaro Rail, Recaro eGaming, and international automotive licensees including Recaro Automotive North America and Recaro Automotive Japan were not affected.

The Recaro Group — under Recaro Holding GmbH — comprises Recaro Aircraft Seating, Recaro eGaming, Recaro Rail, and Recaro Holding itself. Aircraft Seating is headquartered in Schwäbisch Hall with additional plants in Poland, South Africa, the United States, and China. Its CL3710 long-haul economy seat, launched in 2014 with KLM on their Boeing 777-300ER, is among the most widely deployed long-haul economy products in service, used by more than fifty airlines.