The history of the rise of the Minivator Stairlift

Hanidcare UK was establsihed in July 2010 when Minivator and Freelift stairlifts, both members of the Handicare Group, rebranded gloablly under the Handicare banner.

The first ever Minivator Stairlift was made by an engineering company, Dunstable Toolmakers, back in the 1970's. Like many products available in the mobility market today, it was first invented by someone who had a family member in need of assistance. In this case the inventor's mother-in-law had difficulty with her stairs at home and he developed the first ever Minivator system to overcome this problem.

It is not unusual for such developments to then be picked up be more specialist companies with greater knowledge of the market place. This was the case for the Minivator Stairlift and Dunstable toolmakers sold the design on to Sunrise Medical.

Whilst the sales of the Minivator Stairlift continued to grow, research and development was halted. This proved to be to the detriment of the range as competitor products introduced re-designed models. Sales reached a level from which they could not improve unless further investment was forthcoming.

This investment came when, following a MBO, Minivator Limited was established. With a team of 53 Associates Minivator Limited put the spot light back on this stairlift in December 2000. The team's faith in the product was wholly justified and following a period of focus on improving the system and the support services offered around it sales continued to grow.

Investment in the product range has increased not only in terms of technical product development but also in developing the people skills and infrastructure that is required to support a market leading innovative product range that is available worldwide.

New investors came on board when Minivator Group was founded in August 2004introducing new skills and improved investment capabilities. These have combined to see Minivator Group's reputation for quality innovative products and great service to grow, as has our team which now stands at nearly 400.

The future for the Minivator Stairlift continues to look bright, they have a number of technological developments in the pipeline. Once introduced these will further increase the number of unique benefits that Minivator can offer to end users, local authorities and Mobility Dealers. In order to support this continued growth Minivator is maintaining the strategy of investing in the future by further supporting Associate and infrastructure development.