Who Are We?
Welcome to the John Bean Equipment Group, your Total Automotive Equipment Supplier and home of the world famous John Bean brand. JBEG are proud suppliers of John Bean brand alignment systems, John Bean passenger car and truck balancers, John Bean passenger car and truck tyre changers, White Industries Air Conditioning Systems and a host of other automotive service products manufactured to the highest specifications by the Snap-on corporation in the European Union. We have a network of over 60 distributors who sell our products in Scandinavia, Russia, Northern and Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East and Africa. We also have our own direct sales and service organizations in France, Germany and the UK.

Where Are We?
JBEG sales and marketing headquarters is based in the Snap-on France headquarters in Paris under the leadership of the Director of JBEG Mr. Didier Champalle. Our training centre is based in the Snap-on Deutschland Headquarters in Pfungstadt, Germany. This modern facility is located in the industrial heartland of Germany and is easily accessible from Frankfurt airport. Our superb facilities include a state-of-the-art training centre where JBEG employees and distributors from all over Europe and the Middle East come to learn more about the superb range of John Bean Automotive Service Equipment under the supervision of our Technical Manager Henning Jorgensen and the JBEG training team.

Where do we come from?
JBEG has over 75 years of experience in the automotive service industry. The founder of our company, Mr. John Bean, developed the first car alignment system in 1925. JBEG was formed in 1996 when the FMC corporation sold its automotive equipment division to the Snap-on corporation.

The John Bean Equipment Group assumed responsibility for the manufacture, sale and distribution of John Bean range of Automotive Service Equipment in Europe and the Middle East

Who is John Bean?

	John Bean was the retired inventor who founded what today is known as the FMC Corporation in 1904 as "The Bean Spray Company". In 1925 FMC engineers designed a dedicated alignment machine that could diagnose alignment problems and help to align FMC's early fire trucks. By 1932, this new alignment machine was being widely marketed under the John Bean brand name. It was the first aligner of its kind.
The engineers continued to innovate and in 1934 introduced the first dynamic wheel balancer. in 1947, the John Bean Visualiner became the first optically-based alignment system in the world and quickly became the industry standard. Throughout the 1970’s, John Bean was the brand name of the leading line of wheel aligners and wheel service equipment.
	In the late 1970’s, all FMC’s individual brand names were changed to "FMC." FMC Automotive Service Equipment became known worldwide for innovative technology and equipment performance. In 1984 the Visualiner II marked the first successful application of optical measuring heads on a CRT-computer aligner. The company's engineers were also responsible for developing the first self-calibration systems for balancers and aligners. In 1992, the FMC 9909, John Bean signature edition became the first alignment system with built-in training systems for the operator. April of 1992 saw the introduction of the John Bean Visualiner Series featuring more flexible programming capabilities with the first alignment system to utilise the practically unlimited capacities of CR-ROM technology. In April 1996, the Snap-on Corporation acquired the Automotive Service Equipment Division of FMC and renamed it the John Bean Company, resulting in the oldest, most experienced partnership in the automotive aftermarket. Snap-on had 76 years and John Bean/FMC 72 years in the manufacturing and marketing of Automotive Tools and Equipment.

JBEG now has its headquarters and European training centre in the Snap-on Deutschland headquarters in Pfungstadt, Germany. The North American arm of our group, John Bean Company U.S.A., is located in Conway Arkansas where they have an all inclusive sales, manufacturing, support, customer service and r&d organisation. Remember; When you buy John Bean products you don't just buy a piece of equipment, you also get a little piece of Automotive Service Equipment history for free.

Manufacturing
The products of the John Bean Equipment Group are manufactured in 2 state-of-the-art facilities which form part of the wider Snap-on Europe organization. The John Bean alignment range is manufactured in Kings Lynn, Norfolk in the United Kingdom. This modern manufacturing facility is also responsible for the production of our White Industries air conditioning service equipment. The JBEG European Service Repair Centre is also located in Kings Lynn as well as the JBEG customer service department. The John Bean range of balancers and tyre changers are manufactured in the Snap-on Correggio facility which is in the heart of the automotive equipment production heartland of Northern Italy. This facility also produces the balancers and tyre changers that are sold by our sister companies in the United States and Asia.