Liebherr Group is a manufacturing juggernaut with German origins that has been making wine fridges since the early 1990’s. Initially they only created large refrigerators for high-end restaurants, wineries, and hotels, but it wasn’t long before public demand for their commercial refrigeration systems found them producing smaller residential models too. And now the firm frequently wins design awards all over the world. Rosehill Wine Cellars is proud to offer Liebherr wine fridges in Mississauga Canada.
Liebherr wine fridges are German engineered to address long term wine storage factors such as temperature, humidity, lighting and vibrations.
Today Liebherr Group is comprised of over one hundred and thirty different companies organized into eleven separate business divisions. They make tons of earthmoving and mining equipment, and they sell mobile cranes, machine tools and many other automated systems. They assemble many industry-leading domestic appliances too and make the components inside other popular products we use every day. The company’s worldwide workforce has grown to over 40,000 employees at the time of this writing.
In the year 2007, Liebherr was officially recognized as the world’s largest crane company and what’s more remarkable is that it’s still entirely owned by the Liebherr family. Isolde (daughter of Hans) is the chief executive officer and Willi (son of Hans) Liebherr is chairman of Liebherr-International AG which is now headquartered in Bulle, Switzerland. And these blood relatives are not alone at the top. Several other family members are also involved in the management of the business ‘group’ which is the official name of a corporation with many facets in multiple sectors. Nathaniel H Leff’s book, Industrial Organization and Entrepreneurship in the Developing Countries: The Economic Groups defines a business Group as being, “a group of companies that does business in different markets under common administrative control and whose members are linked by relations of interpersonal trust on the basis of similar personal ethnic or commercial background”. Well that’s what Liebherr has become now and they started on that path in the 1970s when they began to establish new companies overseas including Liebherr-Canada Ltd which was founded in 1973 to facilitate sales, marketing and aftersales of select Liebherr products.
History of the Liebherr Group begins with Hans Liebherr Maschinenfabrik
The story of the Liebherr Group is fused with the person who founded the firm in 1949 in Kirchdorf an der Iller, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Liebherr’s first industrial product was very successful and soon the demand for his crane far exceeded supply. Hans Liebherr set up an engineering works in Kirchdorf an der Iller which he called the Hans Liebherr Maschinenfabrik.
Hans Liebherr was a master builder, inventor and draftsman. Later in life he evolved into a skilled businessman and manufacturing pioneer. In 1949, his home country of Germany needed rebuilding after World War II, and Hans Liebherr helped the cause as manager of his parents’ building firm. He was in his late twenties when he recognized the need for better hoisting tools and bigger machinery for the building industry and domestic construction in general. Together with design engineers and tradesmen, he developed the first mobile tower crane in 1949. The TK 10 was a game-changer because it could be easily transported and was easy to erect at job sites.
Larger and more sophisticated crane models followed the TK10 and Karl Liebherr’s parent’s tiny construction company started its transformation into a multi-national manufacturer of construction machinery.
In the mid 1950s, Karl Liebherr made the move from construction equipment to kitchen appliances. At this time, despite the booming economy that helped Germany rebuild very quickly after the war, ninety percent of German households still didn’t own an electric refrigerator. Could you imagine not having a fridge in your kitchen? Nationally, this has dietary and labour implications, and Hans Liebherr saw an opportunity to enter the sector by developing, manufacturing, and then continually improving refrigerators for the German people.
The first Liebherr refrigerator was produced in 1954 and as the years went by the company became a well-known refrigeration specialist across Europe and then all over the world. They spent a lot of money on Research & Development and continually produced new technology and marketed bold innovations in the refrigeration and freezing sector all through the nineteen seventies and eighties. NoFrost technology, launched in 1987, is one example of an industry-changing innovation that Liebherr pioneered. NoFrost technology is still used today to prevent the inside of the freezer compartment from frosting over and jamming the door. This one little breakthrough changed refrigeration forever as the time-consuming and difficult task of defrosting the icebox, or the whole fridge, really did become old news. Now its something we tell our kids. “When I was your age we routinely unplugged our fridge for a day so we could clean the ice off the freezer section just so we could close the door.” They can’t believe it.
Built-In Wine Cabinets with Insulated Glass Doors
Liebherr’s wine storage cabinets and multi-temperature wine cabinets have insulated glass doors which lend themselves perfectly to flush installation in-line with other appliances in modern kitchens. These convenient glass doors not only protect the wine against harmful UV rays, they also ensure an optimum view, showcasing the wines to their best advantage.
Another reason that Liebherr is recognized as an industry leader in wine fridges may be some of that famous ‘German engineering’ that went into the creation of these machines. And of course their insistence on using only premium quality materials with cutting edge design and innovative features that are made-to-fit wine collectors’ busy lifestyles. Plus, exclusive components and trademark production processes ensure energy efficiency and improved performance for years to come
Liebherr Wine Cabinet HW 8000
Liebherr Wine Cabinet HW 8000 is one of their more popular models here in Canada likely due to its uniquely tall and thin shape. As such it can be made to fit into tall and narrow spaces where it works to jazz-up a kitchen or wine serving room.
This built-in wine storage cabinet with glass holds eighty 750 mL wine bottles and features dual temperature zones which is very handy for serving red and white wines and champagne at the same party. The cabinet has an insulated glass door with UV protection. Telescoping rails support beech wood presentation shelves. The stainless steel door (or panel) ships with hinges on the right hand side, but this can be changed and the door flipped so the hinges are on the left hand side if desired.
Liebherr wine fridges are really quiet and indeed they have trademarked a word for their low-noise assembly which they call SuperQuiet. This noise reduction is achieved by using virtually silent, speed controlled compressors with a low noise cooling circuit. And this is done while also ensuring exact performance, energy efficiency and longevity.
Another system that’s unique to Liebherr is the patented SoftSystem which is often used in high-end cabinetry as it ensures the wine cabinet door closes gently, even when fully loaded. Plus the door opening angle can be reduced to 90 degrees allowing for more design options within modern kitchen décor.
Activated Charcoal Filter – Liebherr wine cabinets have a permanent supply of odorless fresh air via an easily changed activated charcoal filter.
The presentation shelf was an early design feature and something other manufacturers emulated. The practical shelf (often made of beechwood) in the Vinidor models fulfills both bottle storage and presentation functions.
Liebherr appliances regularly win design accolades from independent awarding bodies. The basic wine fridge has evolved a great deal since first being introduced in the 1990s. Liebherr wine cabinets are more than just appliances for cooling wine and champagne before serving; such high quality wine fridges with insulated and specially protected UV glass doors can now be trusted for long term storage of your wine collection.
