History

Located in a small town in Louisiana, The Lo-Lift Pump Company, Inc. was founded in 1892 by M. B. van Ness and a partner.

The establishment was a general repair and black smith shop. Three years later, in 1895, M. B. van Ness bought out his partner,

thus the year 1895 is used as the founding date for the family owned business of Lo-Lift Pump Company.

Through the early years, it remained a general repair shop. M. B. began adding some machines such as drill presses and lathes around the turn of the century.

As time progressed, M. B. saw the need in southwest Louisiana for a pump that would move water out of ditches and bayous. He built a wooden box pump and went into the water well drilling business until the 1930’s.

At one time, M. B. held eleven different patents for items used in the drilling of deep water wells.

In 1941, Lo-Lift underwent another change; M. L. “Spike” van Ness took over management of the business.

Production was then centered solely on pump manufacturing. General repair work was eliminated. In 1951, Lo-Lift set up dealers around the country and several overseas.

In 1959, Joe van Ness, son of “Spike”, entered the family owned company. After 17 years Joe became President of Lo-Lift.

In 1978, marketing strategy for the company was changed from dealing with smaller dealers to larger distributors.

Lo-Lift Pumps are manufactured in Welsh, Louisiana, just blocks from the original site. Naturally, we have expanded our line of pumps and we continue to develop new propeller and mixed flow products.

Today we offer a wide selections of quality propeller and mixed flow pumps capable of pumping from 1,000 to 50,000 gallons of water per minute. Our pumps are commonly used for irrigation, flood control, water parks, and floating dry docks.

As of 2017 Lo-Lift has gone through another change.  Dwayne and Jill van Ness, son and daughter of Joe, have now become co-owners of the company.  As fourth generation they are running Lo-Lift with a dedicated small staff that turns out a well-made product, expanding its line of pumps and carrying on family traditions.  Also, fifth generation Ryan, son of Dwayne, and Brandon, son of Jill, are working to lead Lo-Lift into a bright future.