Page 4 - The Tent Handbook 2017

About us
In 1971, Bo HIlleBerg, a professional forester, founded his own company, Hilleberg AB. That same year, while on a ski vacation in the Austrian Tyrol, Bo met Renate Neuner. A er a couple of years, the two had fallen in love, married, and she had moved with him to Stockholm, Sweden. Their marriage was the nal, necessary ingredient in the mix that has become Hilleberg the Tentmaker.
Before Renate, Bo’s edgling company was primarily a forestry equipment concern, with tent making as a hoped-for sideline. An avid, lifelong outdoorsman, Bo was terminally frustrated with tents that required pitching the inner tent rst and then covering it with a loose rain y that usually displayed the same properties as a kite in the wind. He envisioned a tent
that had an outer and inner tent that pitched together, simulta- neously – but he didn’t have the necessary sewing skills. With Bo and Renate’s marriage, conjugal and commercial became one: Renate took charge of the sewing while Bo handled design and sales, and with their combined e orts, the company our- ished.
Today, family and business are still inextricably linked. Bo is Chairman, and is still in charge of design and development; daughter Petra is CEO of the Hilleberg Group and handles all company business outside of Europe; and Bo, Renate, Petra and her brother Rolf make up the governing board of directors – clearly, family synergy continues to beget success.
1977
Bo redesigns the linked inner and outer tent design so that the two pieces can be disconnected. and incorporates this into a tunnel tent design.
The company buys property in Estonia and begins build- ing the new Hilleberg factory. It opens February 2, 1997.
The four-person Saitaris and redesigned three-person Saivo dome tents debut. Built for the most demanding conditions, both feature a new pole system combining full pole sleeves and shorter sleeves and clips, designed expressly to make pitching larger dome tents simple for one person, especially in bad weather.
The introduction of the Keron, then and now the company’s signature tent.
The original Saivo debuts, and showcases the new short pole sleeve and clip system, which makes pitching tents with multiple pole crossings simpler and quicker, especially in windy conditions.
Hilleberg introduces its first three-season tents, the Anjan tunnel models and the Rogen dome model. All offer the same linked inner and outer tent design as Hilleberg all-season tents, along with 9 mm poles and a new, very light outer tent fabric, Kerlon 1000.
The first generation Nallo model is introduced to great acclaim, both for its remarkably low weight and for its in- novative integration of the venting system into the outer tent door.
In 2000, Petra Hilleberg founds Hilleberg, Inc., the US sub- sidiary in Redmond, WA. In 2003, Rolf Hilleberg becomes Managing Director of Hilleberg the Tentmaker in Sweden.
YELLOW LABEL
Hilleberg classifies all tents into one of four Labels – Black, Red, Yellow or Blue – each representing a grouping by components and/or construction. Göran Svensk is named Managing Director of Hilleberg, the Tentmaker, the Swed- ish headquarters.
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