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Trans/Air Acquired by Lippert

The school bus air conditioning provider is now under the umbrella for an Indiana-based recreational component supplier.

Trans/Air Acquired by Lippert

Trans/Air operates out of its own customers' facilities and has over 100 service centers across the country.

Photo: SBF/Canva

2 min to read


LCI Industries' subsidiary Lippert Components Manufacturing, Inc., announced acquiring the business assets of Trans/Air Manufacturing Corporation, which provides climate control systems to school buses and commercial customers. 

Founded in 1979, Trans/Air's systems worked with school, type-A, transit, limo, electric-hybrid buses, specialty vehicles, and vans. Its product line includes evaporators, compressors, condensers, hoses & fitting systems, electronic controls and custom-designed drive kits. 

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Trans/Air is headquartered in Dallastown, Pennsylvania, and operates multiple installation facilities inside its customers’ operations. This ensures a daily presence at customer sites and crucial technical service and product expertise. Trans/Air maintains a network of over 170 authorized service centers across North America.

The company intends to maintain its name and beloved penguin branding, and will be known as Trans/Air Manufacturing, a division of Lippert. They said customers won't experience any changes, or at least any that aren't positive improvements to its service. The people and products you know and trust won't be going anywhere. Rick Lehnert said he intends to stay at the company and is excited about the new partnership being able to expand what the company offers.

Lippert has been manufacturing window and glass solutions for the commercial bus industry for over 12 years. According to the announcement, the two companies many of the same customers. 

Ryan Smith, group president for Lippert’s North American OEM operations, said: “We’re pleased to welcome Trans/Air to the Lippert family. When Lippert was approached with the opportunity months ago, we were immediately impressed with their operational strategies and knew that they would be a great addition to our product portfolio. We are excited to continue the investment into innovation in order to grow the business, and we’ll build on their great team and customer relationships to further expand into the transportation vehicle market.”

Andrew Pocock, Lippert’s EVP of building and transportation products, added: “We are so excited to add such a great team, brand and product line to the Lippert family. We are confident that together we can serve our partners better and will strengthen the product offering, as well as the overall value that Lippert brings to our customers.”

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