Selling health technology business

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Liftup A/S is raising awareness of accessibility with new technology and is selling its health technology business.

Liftup of North Jutland, which has since 2014 developed and sold the prize-winning Raizer lifting chair, has sold the rights to this product to the British Direct Healthcare Group (DHG). The sale is going ahead in order to focus on and bolster Liftup’s work on accessibility solutions in the form of personal lifts. Liftup launched the new product – the EleNor lift – in the spring of this year and expects to supply the first of these to the Danish market in the course of autumn 2022. EleNor will be introduced to the international markets at around the same time.

Sale of Raizer

The buyer of the Raizer products is the pan-European manufacturer of medical equipment, DHG, which will assume the production, sales, and servicing function for Raizer II and Raizer M at the end of October this year. Raizer II and M are sold in more than 30 countries worldwide and both are developments of a prize-winning lifting chair which Liftup has been behind since 2012.

“The Raizer product is a natural fit for DHG, which we have worked closely with in the Swedish market for many years,” says Søren Elisiussen, CEO of Liftup A/S, and adds: “We’re proud of the uptake the Raizer products have already achieved within care of the elderly, in the healthcare sector and in rescue services the world over. With their focus on clinical training and thanks to their large sales network, DHG can make the Raizer available to still more future users. Through this sale we’re therefore securing the best possible developmental possibilities for both the Raizer and Liftup’s accessibility products.”

A Danish export success story

The Raizer products are a Danish welfare technology aid and have been developed by Liftup since 2012. The original Raizer was chosen as one of the five best Danish inventions in 2015 and quickly gained entry into care homes, the healthcare sector and rescue services. The Raizer is a mobile lifting chair which can help a person up from the ground to an almost standing position within a few minutes. And all this without the helpers needing to make difficult lifts. Today, the battery-powered Raizer II and the manual Raizer M are made and sold in more than 30 countries.

Future focus on accessibility

Elisiussen is pleased that the sale will liberate resources for focussing on and further developing Liftup’s accessibility solutions. The sale will also bump up Liftup’s gross earnings and profit in 2022.

“We’ve opted to focus our operations on what was our original mission. That is, to develop dignified and well-conceived accessibility solutions. The sale of the Raizer is to be seen against this background,” he says. Factory floor space and employees, which were previously geared towards Raizer production and the production of accessibility products, will thus be reorganised to work solely with accessibility solutions.

Foto: CEO Søren Elisiussen

FlexStep, lifts – and now EleNor

Liftup has developed a number of technologies which focus on better accessibility. For example, the elegant FlexStep, which the company itself produces. This is a staircase which, with a single press of a button, transforms itself into a wheelchair lift and becomes a staircase again once the wheelchair user has finished using it. Furthermore, they produce and market the EasyLift and HDN lifting platforms. Liftup also sells a number of lifts and chairlifts for stairs. EleNor is the first member of the family in Liftup’s pioneering concept of how a robust yet simple design offers countless options for individual adaptation of the lift, which caters for a wide range of lifting needs in the market. EleNor lifts right down from small heights to lifts of several storeys in height. Going forward, Liftup’s range of innovative lifts will be able to meet by far most market needs.

Our new EleNor lift

“Our new EleNor lift, thanks to its innovative design, was very well received at the world’s biggest lift trade fair, Interlift, earlier this year, and we’re looking forward to supplying the first installations in Denmark towards the end of the year. It’s the beginning of a new and exciting venture for Liftup. The plan is to further develop EleNor into many different variants over the coming years. The market that we’re entering with EleNor is enormous.” explains Elisiussen.

Just as with the Raizer products, Liftup’s accessibility solutions are present on a global scale. In 2021, 89 percent of the company’s turnover was generated by exports.