Company History

1909 Establishment of Linnemann-Schulte & Co. GmbH in Ahlen

1948 Name changed to Linnemann-Schnetzer KG

1950 Production of the first steel compressed air tank in Ahlen

1960 Launch of serial production: Implementation of customized product solutions

1992 Establishment of Linnemann-Schnetzer Group: with 4 European manufacturing centres

2004 Acquisition of the Linnemann-Schnetzer Group, Europe’s number one on the steel brake air tank market. The Linnemann-Schnetzer Group forms only a part of the Frauenthal Automotive Components division with a turnover of EUR 170 million.

In 2007, a part of the Linnemann-Schnetzer concern, the Linnemann-Schnetzer air tank plant in Hungary.

2009 As a result of the economic crisis, it was necessary to restructure the company and adapt to market requirements. It is necessary to implement steps to reduce the capacity, based on which individual sites, such as Styria Elsefrance in St. Avold in France, would be shut down.

2010 Thanks to the massive restructuring measures taken in 2009 and the recovery of commercial vehicle sales, the Group had overcome the crisis. Year of change: A start of a new era with our new strategy begun.

2012 As of 1 July, 2012, “Linnemann-Schnetzer”, “Styria”, and “Pol-Necks” brands merged into Frauenthal Automotive.

2012 Acquisition of a Czech company producing air tanks, Worthington Cylinders a.s., on 31 October, 2012.

2013 Worthington Cylinders a.s. was renamed Frauenthal Automotive Hustopeče s.r.o. on January 1, 2013 On 01 May, 2013, the air tank manufacturing plant in Ahlen was sold.

2014 Reorganisation of Frauenthal Automotive Division into a business unit. From it, the Business Unit Airtank with two air tank manufacturing plants in Germany and the Czech Republic is created.

2019 Integration of the Airtank business unit into the Gnotec business unit. Both business units remain as separate entities.