In May 1992, Klaus Wohlfarth founded his retail business "KW Tuning" in Murrhardt. Today, three decades later, the retailer for car tuning and accessories has become a world-renowned manufacturer of coilover suspensions, shock absorbers and alloy wheels in its segment. The heart of the group of companies is the suspension manufacturer "KW automotive" based in Fichtenberg, Swabia, which Klaus Wohlfarth has built up together with his brother Jürgen Wohlfarth and his 1200 employees at 13 locations to become the world market leader for suspension systems.
"As the products that customers wanted were not available at the time, we started to develop our own coilover suspension," says Klaus Wohlfarth, recalling his beginnings as an entrepreneur. He presented his coilover suspension to the public for the first time at the Essen Motor Show in 1995. But not only car enthusiasts have been among his customers for years.
Daimler-Benz, for example, was the first car manufacturer to commission KW to equip selected series models such as the Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG Black Series with a coilover suspension with separately adjustable compression and rebound damping. Today, KW also works for Audi, BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and other car manufacturers. KW not only manufactures the suspensions, but also supports the automotive industry, small series manufacturers and tuners in suspension design and development
The KW-automotive group manufactures all its KW, ST and ap brand products at its headquarters in Fichtenberg with a vertical range of manufacture of almost 95 percent. Around 400 individual suspensions are produced daily for around 350 different vehicles. For example, while the KW delivery program in 1995 still included nine suspension products for four vehicle types, in 2022 there will be over 26,000 products for more than 2,400 models at the Fichtenberg site alone.
