In early 1909, the Kürbi & Niggeloh company was founded in Barmen-Rittershausen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Products included music stands, postcard stands and tripods. Two years later, company headquarters were moved to Radevormwald, one of the oldest towns in the Bergisches Land region. In 1919, the name was changed from Kürbi & Niggeloh, named after the company founders Wilhelm Kürbi and Carl Niggeloh, to Bilora.
Bilora also has a reference to the founders. The name is made up of the last letters of KürBI, two letters of NiggeLOh and the town RAdevormwald.
In 1935, the Bilora Box, the first camera was introduced. The roll film camera was one of the simple box cameras of the time. With the outbreak of World War II, Bilora had to produce material (including antennas) for the war. After the end of the war, the first air pumps and regulators for water taps were built.
Only in 1946 the production of cameras was resumed. Already in the 1950s, over 1. million units were built. In the 1960s, production began for manufacturers such as Agfa and Zeiss Ikon. This was not the first time, already in the 30’s they built cameras for Voigtländer.
In 1975 the production of own cameras was stopped. Bilora concentrated more on the production of tripods, accessories for cameras and the processing of plastics, which they built up in the 60s.
In 1991, due to strong competition from Asia, the production of tripods in Germany was also abandoned and a license was granted to Taiwan.
In 2016, Kürbi & Niggeloh BILORA GmbH became BILORA Kunststofftechnik GmbH and the focus was placed on toolmaking, plastic injection molding and finishing. The company is still headquartered in Radevormwald.
