Door Industry Journal - Summer 2020

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk Domestic Garage Doors SOMMER Celebrates its 40th Birthday! Uwe Sommer founded the SOMMER group in 1980. The entry in the commercial register was made on May 7 1980, and so this year the company’s 40th birthday was celebrated. Under the present circumstances, it was a very small party! Now, 40 years later, SOMMER is known globally as an expert manufacturer and innovator in automation; particularly for garage and industrial doors, swing and sliding gates, roller and high-speed door controls and barrier systems. Five years after its foundation, SOMMER was granted a patent for a door and gate operator with a travelling motor. One year after in 1986, the first SOMMER door operator, marathon 550 N, was launched. The many years that followed saw new products, new patents, and expansion into international markets. The SOMMER Group established their UK subsidiary in 1988. Initially based in the North-West, moving premises to the Airfield Business Park in York in 2006, before relocating to its current premises in Elvington, York in 2015. In the same year the base+ - the first in a new generation of garage door operators - was launched. The next milestone came in 2001: SOMMER’s own radio system with Somloq Rollingcode. Since then the company has developed a new and better radio system, the SOMloq2. At the same time, they have also continued to develop new and better door and gate operators. In 2020 they’re still going strong and look forward to the next 40 years in the garage door industry. For more information about the company and its products visit: www.sommer.eu