Fighting American Fires Since 1995

The Rosenbauer *Panther* is one of the most successful, efficient, and versatile Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) vehicles worldwide. Its multiaward-winning design and powerful performance make it the most modern firefighting vehicle of our time.
*Photo: Rosenbauer*

Rosenbauer is the world’s leading manufacturer of firefighting vehicles and equipment by market share. In fact, as the world’s largest firefighting technology provider the Rosenbauer Group recorded €1,044 million (about $1.15 billion) in revenue last year and employs about 4,000 people worldwide. About twenty-one percent of that workforce or 856 people (behind only Austria and Germany in terms of number of employees) are employed in the United States. Rosenbauer America operates four production centers: two in Wyoming, Minnesota, one in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and one in Freemont, Nebraska. In North America, Rosenbauer America incorporates the international strength and innovation of a global company with top American manufacturing to offer a full line of custom and commercial pumpers, rescues, tankers, and aerials.

Charting Rosenbauer’s Path to America

The Rosenbauer Group has a long history. It was founded as a family business in 1866 by Johann Rosenbauer in the city of Linz, Upper Austria. Initially established as a trading company, the business originally dealt in loose fire department equipment before it began producing its own fire pumps and components in 1906. By 1919, Rosenbauer was already constructing its own firefighting vehicles.

In its early years, Rosenbauer focused primarily on the domestic market in Austria but underwent a transformation in the latter half of the twentieth century. By 1976, exports represented over half of Rosenbauer’s total sales. In the years that followed, Rosenbauer underwent a period of internationalization; it reorganized itself as Rosenbauer International GmbH in 1988 and acquired a number of foreign firms in Spain, Singapore, Germany, etc. In 1994, shares of Rosenbauer International were publicly traded on the Vienna Stock Exchange for the first time and by 1995 Rosenbauer International made its first inroads in the U.S. market through its cooperation with General Safety Equipment LLC in Minnesota. Today, General Safety Equipment operates the Rosenbauer plant in Wyoming, MN as Rosenbauer Minnesota, LLC. It specializes in custom vehicles, particularly fire service trucks for fire departments in the U.S. and Canada.

Fighting American Fires since 1995

Rosenbauer America produces equipment for customers in the United States, Canada, and Central and South America and is supported by a network of dealers throughout the Americas. As mentioned, the Rosenbauer plant in Wyoming, Minnesota specializes in custom vehicles and has seen a several-fold increase in production in recent years. Since 2003, it has also begun manufacturing its own custom chassis and has thus become a single-source provider for fire services. In 2021, Rosenbauer America signed a $50 million contract with the Defense Department to produce seventy-one of its futuristic PANTHER ARFF (Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting) vehicles for the U.S. Air Force; these vehicles will also be primarily manufactured at the Wyoming, Minnesota plant. The majority of Rosenbauer America’s vehicle production, however, takes place at the Lyons plant in South Dakota. The location has an output capacity of approximately 700 vehicles per year and is able to produce practically the entire firefighting range from pumpers, rescues, and aerials to specialty trucks and wildland vehicles. The final Rosenbauer America plant in the United States is a smaller operation that focuses on aerials, such as extinguishing booms, arms, and turntable ladders. Located in Fremont, Nebraska, Rosenbauer Aerials has been part of the Rosenbauer Group since 2000 and maintains about eighty employees.

In its 2021 presentation to investors, the Rosenbauer Group cites global warming and urbanization as creating a need for greater and more specialized firefighting capacity. To combat these trends and contribute to a more sustainable future, the Rosenbauer Group and Rosenbauer America are quickly progressing to fleet electrification. For example, Rosenbauer won the 2021 Austrian State Innovation Award for its new electrified firefighting vehicle “Revolutionary Technology” or RT.

For more information, visit
https://www.rosenbaueramerica.com

Video: RT - Revolutionary Technology from Rosenbauer

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