Located in Niles, Michigan, Grotnes has a rich heritage acquired through partnerships, acquisitions and hard work.  Originally Founded in 1898, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A as “Charles Grotnes Machine Works” (later known as Grotnes Metalforming Systems, or GMS), Mr. Grotnes invented a machine that could stretch and shape metal rings. The Grotnes machine, which came to be known as the expander, allowed rings to be fabricated from simple cylindrical blanks that were expanded to size while setting the desired shape. Grotnes also developed other technologies such as shrinking and rotary rollforming for the cold forming of metal. 

 

​​In the 1960's GMS and Fontijne (located in the Netherlands) formed a licensing arrangement that leveraged the two companies’ technologies.  Ultimately, Fontijne acquired GMS with the new company being named Fontijne Grotnes, Inc. (FGI)  In 2013 FGI acquired the intellectual property of Hess Industries, opening the door to new markets of emissions canning and metal spinning technologies that integrated well with other product lines.

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​Charles Grotnes' son, Eugene, moved to Atlanta, and in 1956 and formed Atlanta Grotnes Machine Company (AGMC).  In 1975, Eugene's son Carl, joined his father as they built the company to be a leader in metalforming systems for rigid packaging, power distributions and commercial appliances and tanks.

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In 2019, FGI acquired AGMC and its intellectual property.  This brought together two companies originally founded by the same family, and thus the new, combined company has been re-branded as Grotnes.  Today, Grotnes has its headquarters in Niles Michigan, operates a facility in Atlanta Georgia and a sales/services office in Monterrey, Mexico.

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Grotnes is an innovative manufacturer of customized and integrated metal forming equipment and cells for the automotive, aerospace, agriculture, petroleum, power distribution, rigid packaging, appliance/tank and forging industries. Grotnes' proven engineered solutions, such as expanding, shrinking, rotary roll forming, spinning, and emission canning, have been used for over a century.  Grotnes supports its equipment globally and performs full retrofits and rebuilds in addition to providing spare parts. The Formitt Metal Labs division also supports our customers with prototyping and production services capabilities.

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