Gronard: Mobility turnaround made in Munich

Gronard’s company history is a real Munich success story: the manufacturer of bicycle parking systems recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, now in its third generation. From a backyard welding shop to a full-range supplier for all bicycle parking needs: We take a look at the eventful past of the family business, which still develops and produces at its Munich site today.

The eventful history of Gronard goes back to 1949. At that time, Walter Felix Gronard, who was born in Essen, founded the “Walter Gronard Spezial-Guss-Schweisserei” in Munich-Ramersdorf at the age of just 27. Gronard, a trained materials tester, initially specialized in the repair welding of engines in his small backyard workshop together with one or two employees – a service that was in demand during the period of German reconstruction after the war. A few years later, Gronard opened up a new area of business, which also arose from the needs of reconstruction: the construction of cellar tanks for oil heating systems. The small company grew considerably in the following years. In 1955, the company changed its name to “Walter Gronard Schweisswerk”.

A few years later, with the backyard workshop in Ramersdorf bursting at the seams, Gronard built a new workshop in Altperlach, while the steadily growing company expanded its portfolio. In 1963, the entire company and staff moved to Altperlach. Welding techniques for aluminum, stainless steel and brass were added to cast welding. In terms of products, Gronard opened up new markets, such as the manufacture of machine frames for the printing industry and steel swimming pools. In this decade, the company also entered the bicycle stand business for the first time, although this was to play a subordinate role for a few more years. In the mid-1960s, when Munich had just won the bid to host the Olympic Games, the Bavarian capital experienced a construction boom of unprecedented proportions. New suburban and subway railway lines, roads, bridges and even a whole new city district were built. Munich wanted to make itself fit for the Olympics and this required, among other things, a product that Gronard knew how to weld: construction waste containers. After a few years, as demand for construction waste containers dried up, Gronard’s focus increasingly shifted to bicycle racks. Then the small company was dealt a tragic blow when the company founder Walter Gronard died unexpectedly in 1980 at the age of 59. Suddenly, everything had to happen very quickly. In addition to the business operations that had to be maintained and the mourning that had to be dealt with, the succession in the company also had to be arranged. While Gronard’s wife Margarete continued to run the business for a few years, their son Lothar – who at 28 was almost as young as his father when he started the company – took over the management of the company.

Under the management of the business administration graduate (FH), the company realigned itself and shifted its field of activity to architectural steel construction. In addition, the company soon produced horizontal crushers for gravel processing, heavy machinery that crushes stones. From the late 1980s onwards, the subject of bicycle parking facilities and their roofs gradually gained in importance, while other business areas that the company had developed in the meantime gradually receded further and further into the background. The company reached a milestone with a framework agreement with Deutsche Bahn. This resulted in bicycle parking facilities that are still in operation today, in some cases for more than 40 years.

Today, more than 75 years after the first welded seams were made on cast iron motor housings by founder Walter Felix Gronard, the company has long since established itself as a leader in the market for premium bicycle parking systems. Today, Gronard has become a full-range supplier of bicycle racks, and its in-house production in Munich enables it to respond to the individual wishes of its customers. The product range extends from simple bicycle leaning racks(read here why leaning racks only have limited utility value) to double-decker parkers and their roofs to parklets and charging stations for bicycles. When developing new products, Gronard is largely guided by the DIN standard 79008 recommended by the ADFC, which ensures that various requirements are met to ensure good usability of a bicycle parking facility. Apparently with success, because nowhere else can you find so many bicycle stands with ADFC recommendation as in Gronard’s product catalog.

The topic of sustainability is not neglected, as the company voluntarily offsets unavoidable emissions – after all, steel is an energy-intensive product – by purchasing_{CO2 certificates} and has been able to call itself a climate-neutral company since 2018. Gronard also tries to keep the company’s_{carbon footprint} as small as possible internally, for example through a largely paperless office or company bicycles for employees. Gronard is also well positioned for the future in other respects, as a new generation of the Gronard family is already playing a key role in the company’s fortunes: in 2020, the founder’s grandson Felix took over the management of the company at the age of 32, followed a year later by his granddaughter Sofia as Head of Communications, who is focusing on the digitalization of the company, among other things.

Read more about bike racks here:

Bike racks: four points to consider when using them in public

Bike racks – the four trends of the future for the city of the future

6 stumbling blocks you should avoid with a bicycle parking system