Historia

Gembird Europe BV was founded in 1997 in the Netherlands by IT-professionals with ambitions to become a market leader in the field of computer accessories and peripherals.

From the very beginning the company strategy has been to develop its own innovative computer products. The first customers of Gembird were drawn to the modern sleek design, special features, and the robust structure of the “Silver Shield” surge protectors. This initial success was followed by more innovation and the diversification of other computer products - mobile racks with some unique features, modular KVM switches and KVM switches with power management, MUSORFO omni-scrolling and MUSTORO touch-on wireless mice - all being the first of their kind on the computer market.

Gembird was furthermore one of the pioneers to launch its own external hard-drive solution called Flexi-Drive. End users were encouraged to use hard disks as floppies, and while some contemporary critics could not digest this at the time novel idea, the loyal customer base was able to appreciate the company vision.

By the year 2000 the R&D department had matured. Next to the mechanical, electrical, PCB, firmware and software design the company started to develop its own ICs - initially for its own range of USB converters.

A great expansion followed from 2001 to 2003. The company opened its own factories in China, initially in Zhuhai and then in Shenzhen and Ningbo. This was motivated not only by a desire to lower production costs, but also to have a definitive say in quality control. Quality assurance has always been one of the highest priorities of Gembird, and the move to have in-house production facilities has brought it to a completely new level. Shortly after the factories became certified with the ISO-9001 standard, and the new company slogan "Shaping the perfection" was adopted.

Since 2001 Gembird has displayed its innovations annually at CeBIT in Germany. The products of Gembird have won numerous awards in the most popular European magazines - PC World, PC Go, Computer Bild and so on. The development of some new ideas, such as the e-Mic, were perhaps considered too revolutionary in those days. However, these products helped Gembird open many doors and earned the company the reputation of being innovation professionals.

The development of the e-paper printer, the precursor of the iPad, won a European grant in 2010 and was nominated by the CES in Las Vegas for the innovation award in 2012. From this point onwards Gembird has strived to make big endeavors towards embracing green energy-saving technologies through the introduction of the new trademark EnerGenie - intended to deal with energy-related, environmentally friendly products.

In 2005-2007 Gembird saw an expansion of its operations in China, and as a result Gembird became better known in the quickly emerging internal Chinese market. In Europe too, despite the financial crisis, Gembird was growing and developing further as a company. By 2005 Gembird owned 5 offices, and had established strong distributors in more than 40 different countries. In the newly built European headquarters,

Gembird developed RFID technology that has become the backbone of its world-class logistics services. The company also started to become accepted as one of the major players on the continent in the field of computer accessories. Gembird’s own production facilities allowed the company to successfully compete on price, especially for such commodities as cables. Perhaps surprisingly, these seemingly simple products also required engineering expertise which far exceeded the abilities of average traders and/or distributors. It is no wonder then that the quantities sold by the company eventually grew to many million units on an annual basis. Recognizing it as an important trend, Gembird focused on building up its image of reliable and competent cable supplier which eventually resulted in the creation of a new dedicated trademark - CablExpert

It was around 2014 that Gembird recognized that there was a substantial market gap for the OEM services in Europe. By that time there were virtually no European companies offering customized computer accessories under a client trademark both to small and big size businesses.

The low-cost company strategy with a pronounced accent on automatization has allowed Gembird to successfully compete with the most aggressive Chinese suppliers. This OEM turn allowed Gembird to be noticed by the biggest retail chains on the continent. Meanwhile, China became less competitive on the global marketplace, and Gembird had a desire to localize production to Europe.

This has led Gembird to invest into production in Ukraine - a country seeking to increase its business ties to Europe. The greatly reduced delivery time and product costs have allowed the company to sharpen its competitive edge further.

The COVID-19 disaster struck the world in early 2020. Despite the severity of this crisis, with its highly computerized operations, Gembird continues to be dependable and rock-solid, competitive and innovative, and able to provide for the computing needs at home. At Gembird, we are working on developing more beautiful products and brilliant ideas that are being brought to life at this very moment…