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Fifty years is a significant milestone for any company. For Genie, it is even more momentous because the aerial industry has grown at the same time. Together, we have learned, discovered and innovated. Together, we have provided people around the world with more productive and safer ways to work at height. Simply, we have spent 50 years providing access to access.

Work always has to be done in the air, such as putting ventilation ducts in place, installing HVAC systems, painting ceilings or roofs, mounting electrical boxes, welding structures or trimming trees. No matter what decade — 50 years ago or today — a contractor looks at the job at hand and says, “So, how do we do that?” because they know the job has to get done.

Before powered lifts, contractors used ladders and scaffolding. Both methods require a lot of manual lifting, and it is often difficult to maneuver equipment into place. In the 1960s, an electrician in Seattle looked at the challenge of how to lift and install fluorescent lights more efficiently. He developed a product that used compressed gas (in this case, bottled carbon dioxide) to lift the fixtures. The people who saw this lift in action were impressed with the “magic in the bottle” used to raise and lower the hoist — and, the “Genie” name was born.

Bud Bushnell’s Genie Hoist changed the lives of the contractors who used it. Folded up into a compact package, it fit neatly in trucks or even car trunks. When they deployed the hoist at a job site, they did the job with fewer people at height, and their work was more safely secured.  It’s classic Genie that the original hoist design is fundamentally still being sold and used across the globe.

If you look at our company’s history, how we've worked and led in the industry, it's all about this: How do we consistently improve how customers get the job done. Even more importantly — how can we help them do that same job safer than last time, as well as do new jobs safely that couldn’t be done before?

Genie products do more than just change how the job is done, they can change the job.  Architects can design taller unsupported structures with our SX-180 telescopic boom, spec more creative roof features with our ZX-135 articulating boom and make creative auditoriums maintainable with our AWP-40S aerial work platform.

In the last 50 years, the Genie legacy has been built on providing contractors with safe ways of working at height. It is what we strive for — getting people safely to aerial work spaces, keeping them safe while they complete the aerial work and safely getting them back down. Today we are proud to provide safe work at height solutions for those working on older systems such as ladder or scaffolds. Access to access is safety.

And, how do we help contractors do it safely?

By engineering equipment that features the latest technology to meet customers’ needs and worksite challenges. We manufacture our products to stringent standards and provide exceptional quality and value for years to come.

We also do it economically. Because Genie products are affordable to rent, they are accessible to people who might otherwise choose a less safe solution. We are proud to know this leads to our Z-45/25 articulating boom being the world’s most popular aerial, and the safety provided by the 30,000 scissors we produced and delivered globally last year.

Today, Genie products continuously set new industry standards for quality, reliability and safety. They are intuitive to operate and straightforward to service. Our brand name stands for the same ideals today as it did 50 years ago: The safest products with the best return on investment.

Stay up to date on the Genie 50th Anniversary at www.genielift.com/50th