History
1981 - 1986 Initial phase of the Bär tail lift
1981 Foundation of the Gerd Bär GmbH in Heilbronn.
1983 Development of the first retractable, double folded tailgate.
1984 First exports to Switzerland.
1986 Doubling of the production area to 1.420 square meters.
1987 - 1992 Factory rebuild after fire
1989 Reconstruction of the manufacturing plant after serious fire. Production downtime of 3 weeks. In spite of that the output increases up to 40 percent which means 2.395 tail lifts and Bär became the second in the German market.
1990 Bolted mounting plates and a bolted under run bar are became market influencing technologies.
1991 Relocation to the new 27.000 sqm large premises. 50 percent increase in sales 5.400 tail lifts.
1992 Renaming from Bär tail lift into Bär Cargolift. Implementation of the cathodic dip coating for all steel components and a 24 months warranty on parts and labour. Implementing a German team of area sales managers. Foundation of the subsidiary Bär Praha s.r.o. (Czech Republic).
1993 - 1998 Expansion abroad and further technical developments
1994 Introduction of the Bär Cargolift Hydfalt with an aluminum sliding mechanism. Starting sales in Austria.
1996 Foundation of the subsidiary Bär Cargolift Polska Sp. z o.o. (Poland).
1998 Foundation of the subsidiary Bär Cargolift UK Ltd (Great Britain). Starting sales of 2-cylinder product line. Launch of the BC 2000S4U with a mechanic fold-away under run bar. The Internet Shop goes online.
1999 - 2004 Further extension of the production line
2002 Tobias Bär enters the company. A new generation starts. Introduction of the new 2 =4 technology with compensation mechanism.
2004 Extension of the production plant in order to establish a platform production and enlargement of the Cargolift lifting mechanism fitment. Market entry in France.
2005 - 2009 European Player at the headquarters in Heilbronn
2006 Development of the production line FreeAccess. Foundation of the subsidiary Bär Cargolift España S.L. (Spain).
2007 Tobias Bär became the only Managing director. Further extension of the production plant to 9.000 sqm. Increase in sales - 14.500 Cargolifts sold.
2008 Market entry in Hungary.
2009 Foundation of the subsidiary Bär Cargolift RUS OOO (Russia). Direct sales in Great Britain and Spain after shutdown of the subsidiary.
Since 2010 On the way tot he next generation Cargolift
2010 Sales via own sales representative in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg.
2011 Bär emloyees at ist 30th anniversary about 280 people in Europe and exports its Cargolifts to more than 25 countries.
2012 "Bär Cargolift – The next generation" with the overload indicator Bär CargoWarn, the Smartphone remote control Bär SmartControl, the diagnostic and monitoring software CargoCheck 2.0 and of course, with the Bär CargoApp, Bär shows you what you may expect from a tail lift today. Market entry in Sweden.
2013 Sales via own sales representative in Danmark.