The Stiltz Lift was a brand new concept invented in a home garage in Tasmania, Australia in 2007 and originally called The Duet Lift. One year later, Homelift, an Australian home lift provider, became the distributor of The Duet.

Seeing the massive global potential for the product Peter Gillespie, one of the owners of Homelift, moved to Shanghai, China with his son James in 2010 to establish a manufacturing facility. Peter’s extensive engineering background and James’ fluent Chinese was the perfect start for operations in the Far East.

That same year, one of Peter’s other sons, Cameron, moved to the United Kingdom with university friend Lachlan Faulkner to set up Stiltz global sales headquarters in Wokingham, Berkshire. Cameron became the company Director of Operations (UK) and Lachlan its Director of Business Development.

The company name Stiltz was created due to the unique dual rail system employed by the lift that resembled ‘stilts’ – used to allow a person or structure to stand at a height above the ground – and the Duet name was dropped in favor of the Stiltz Duo Home Elevator. The first residential elevator was sold within weeks of arriving in the UK.