Recaro, a long-standing manufacturer of seats for all types of cars based in southern Germany, has been acquired by an Italian investor.
Production will be moved to the Turin region and the German production site will be permanently closed, a spokeswoman said on Thursday. She added that it employed 215 people, and only a small number of those jobs will be retained.
The buyer of Recaro Automotive GmbH is the Proma Group, an automotive supplier specialized in the production of seat constructions, body constructions and chassis suspensions. It has a turnover of €1.1 billion ($911 million).
A spokesperson for the curator confirms the takeover by the buyer and says that the contract has already been signed.
The Proma Group will retain a number of employees from Recaro’s original sales and engineering departments.
Alessandro Lieb, from the IG Metall union, said the takeover by Proma means more than 170 people will lose their jobs.
Recaro Automotive GmbH recently had a turnover of almost €50 million. The company has been producing car seats for sports cars for decades and filed for bankruptcy a few months ago after losing a large order.
