Wanzl

What they do

Wanzl builds the metal and plastic hardware of modern retail: shopping trolleys and baskets, luggage trolleys for airports and stations, hotel and housekeeping carts, shelving and shop fittings, and entrance gates and turnstiles. Shopping trolleys are the best-known line, but Monocle reported in 2017 that they made up only about 40 per cent of the business. The company reports more than 4,600 employees and 12 production sites worldwide, with four German plants in Leipheim and nearby Kirchheim.

Why it matters

The story starts as a refugee story. Rudolf Wanzl senior ran a metal workshop in Giebau in the Sudetenland from 1918. After the expulsions of 1945 to 1947 the family started again in Leipheim, a small town between Ulm and Augsburg, registering on 5 May 1947 a workshop for building and repairing scales. A contract from the cash register maker NCR to supply wire baskets for a model supermarket moved the firm into self-service retail. Wanzl supplied 40 trolleys and 100 baskets to the first self-service shop in Hamburg in 1949.

In 1951, according to the company, Rudolf Wanzl junior was flying home from the United States after meeting Sylvan Goldman, the American pioneer of the shopping cart. In a window seat he sketched a basket fixed onto a wheeled frame. The result, patented in 1951 and named Concentra, set the template for the trolley Europeans push today.

Products to know

• Shopping trolleys: steel and plastic models, made largely in-house down to the wheels.
• Luggage trolleys: used at airports such as Frankfurt and Hong Kong.
• Access solutions: entrance gates and turnstiles for stores and stations.

The German angle

Wanzl is a Bavarian family firm that grew global by following its customers. In 2012 it acquired Technibilt/Cari-All, which it calls the North American market leader for shopping trolleys, and in 2026 it raised its stake in the refrigerated display maker WSL to 51 per cent. Gottfried Wanzl, the founder's grandson, represents the owning family, while day-to-day management has been in external hands since 2015.

Sources

• Wanzl: Company history
• Wanzl Stories: The birth of a brand
• Monocle: Wanzl, world's biggest trolley maker
• Wikipedia: Wanzl