Archive | Company History RSS for this section

How Many Garage Door Remotes Does Liftmaster Manufacture Every Year?

Liftmaster Logo

Founded in 1954 and headquartered out of Elmhurst, IL and Saarwellingen, Germany, The Chamberlain Group is the name behind Liftmaster. This division manufacturers garage door openers and gate operators for both the residential and commercial markets. They are the largest manufacturer in this sector with only one other competitor, Overhead Door Corporation, who markets their openers and operators under the Genie brand as well. The company does a great job of offering do-it-yourselfer’s other products such as garage door opener parts, access control and communication products and clicker universal accessories available along with professionally installed products including residential garage and commercial door operators, telephone entry and access control systems. The company serves homes and businesses as well as retail and professional markets offering their products through a network of trained professional dealers worldwide. They also hold regional offices in France, England, Norway, Italy, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Singapore and China. Other regional offices are located in Tuscon, Arizona; Nogales and Sonora, Mexico.

Chamberlain has been in Mexico for over 20 years. Opening the Nogales, Mexico plant in 1990 provided greater cost efficiency by consolidating five different manufacturing operations under one roof. The company has invested in several advanced electronics manufacturing technologies, making it a world-class facility and the most advanced one ever designed for manufacturing garage door openers and access systems. Each new concept starts with rough design parameters which are eventually honed into an efficient new product to offer consumers. After the design phase, engineers test to eliminate failure and maximize product performance and dependability. In the case of garage door openers, the unit as a whole is tested then every single component to correct any possible design issues. Garage door openers run on a 35 second cycle, nonstop for three weeks or 25,000 cycles, the equivalent of 15 years of normal use so testing is rigorous to meet high quality standards.

Key Chamberlain Executives are David Rolls, Chief Executive Officer; Jim Mole, General Manager of Australia and New Zealand; Dan Nixa, Director of Marketing and Bill Giola, Marketing Manager of Commercial Products. Since The Chamberlain Group is a privately held company, a financial profile is not available. They are categorized as an Electronic Equipment, Instruments and Components company. For more details about products and services refer to: chamberlain group and liftmaster. You will also find a few paragraphs on the history of both The Chamberlain Group and Liftmaster, a description of their manufacturing process and company philosophies.

History Of Garage Giant: Chamberlain LiftMaster

Liftmaster%20Logo

The Chamberlain Group is one of the world’s largest if not the largest manufacturer of garage doors and associated equipment and device with headquarters in Elmhurst, Illinois. It is a subsidiary of The Duchossois Group (TDG), a family owned business under the management of Richard L. Duchossois. TDG was formed in 1983 to manage the family’s diversified line of businesses the origins of which can be traced back to a small rail car repair company called Union Wagon Company established by A.J. Thrall in 1916. It was after the Second World War, in 1952 to be exact that A.J. Thrall and Dick Duchossois joined forces to form a corporation with Dick becoming the president and A.J. Thrall successfully growing the company into manufacturing new rail cars.

It was in 1980’s that the company acquired the Chamberlain Group and became its sole owner in 1983. The new acquisition was assimilated into the group in 1984 as the consumer products division of the TDG and was named the Chamberlain Group, Inc. It was under the direct hands of Dick Duchossois who turned it into the world’s biggest manufacturer of residential and commercial door openers, remote gate operators, and access control products.

From 1989 to 2002, CGI went on a company acquisition binge in an attempt to be the industry leader in the commercial and residential door operator market. It was in 1989 that the company made its first mark in the market with the introduction of the industry’s first ever wireless, keyless entry system. It acquired Gasselschaft of Germany and Wecla of France (both are makers of GDOs and gates) in 1994 and signaled its entry into the European market.

To further bolster its hold on this budding industry, CGI acquired Link Door Controls, of New York a prominent manufacturer of commercial door operators in 1995. This was followed with the acquisition in 1997of Sentex of Chatsworth, California which is a manufacturer of telephone entry systems. Immediately after that, in 1998, the group acquired The Clicker Corporation a manufacturer of universal remote transmitters based in Carlsbad, California and Moore-O-Matic of Wisconsin, another manufacturer of garage door openers and gate operators.

Still not content with its company acquisitions and the vast technology it has amassed, CGI went on to purchase ABL Enterprises of New York which is another manufacturer of commercial door operators and other allied products. With its site focused on the emerging technology, CGI acquired Solid State Security in 2001. The company is a well known manufacturer of fire door release devices and control panels. It made its final acquisition in 2002 with the purchase of the assets of Atlas commercial door operators from another competitor the Clopay Building Products Company.

Having almost all the breakthrough technology in its possession, CGI became the industry leader and was known for always exceeding customer expectations since its inception. Today the company is in the pathway to redefining home access by breaking ground with its state-of-the art products that incorporates the latest technology and innovations. It has streamlined its operations to better serve its targeted markets by manufacturing under three brands – the Chamberlain which manufactures do-it-yourself garage door opener kits, the Liftmaster which manufactures openers for professional installers, and Clicker which manufactures a whole line of universal garage door remote control devices.

Today, the Chamberlain Group’s branded products are sold all over Europe particularly in France, United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia, and the Benelux. They are also sold in Australia, Asia, Mexico, Middle East, New Zealand, and in North and South America.