The Home Lift Company
The Stiltz Lift was a brand new concept invented in a home garage in Tasmania, Australia in 2007 and originally called The Duet Lift. One year later, Homelift, an Australian home lift provider, became the distributor of The Duet.
Seeing the massive global potential for the product Peter Gillespie, one of the owners of Homelift, moved to Shanghai, China with his son James in 2010 to establish a manufacturing facility. Peter’s extensive engineering background and James’ fluent Chinese was the perfect start for operations in the Far East.
That same year, one of Peter’s other sons, Cameron, moved to the United Kingdom with university friend Lachlan Faulkner to set up Stiltz global sales headquarters in Wokingham, Berkshire. Cameron became the company Director of Operations (UK) and Lachlan its Director of Business Development.
The company name Stiltz was created due to the unique dual rail system employed by the lift that resembled ‘stilts’ – used to allow a person or structure to stand at a height above the ground – and the Duet name was dropped in favor of the Stiltz Duo Home Elevator. The first residential elevator was sold within weeks of arriving in the UK.
In 2012, Stiltz launched the Duo Vista, fitted with a clear body made from structural polycarbonate to give it a contemporary look and Duo Thru Car, which has a slightly larger footprint and allows users to enter and exit from both sides of the car.
That same year, the company released the Stiltz Trio Lift, a larger home elevator designed to carry more weight and accommodate a standard-sized wheelchair. This proved an instant success with wheelchair users and people with walkers and rollators.
Stiltz expanded its operations in 2013 and moved to a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Kunshan, Suzhou in Eastern China. Industry veterans Mike Lord and Mark Blomfield joined the Stiltz team in the summer. Mike became company chairman and Mark set up and established Stiltz USA in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This was in response to growing interest in the Stiltz range of products and increasing demand for residential elevators in the country.
Significant growth in the UK and Europe saw Stiltz outgrow their expanded facility again in 2014 and they moved to a bigger HQ but still in Wokingham at Anglo Trade Park. Stiltz home elevators are now sold in close to 20 different countries with authorized partners in Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore, Ireland, Russia, Singapore and Australia.