Lenco Armored Vehicles, designer and manufacturer of armored response and rescue vehicles has reached a major milestone. The company celebrated 40 years in business in February. What began as a family owned and operated small business in the Berkshires, has grown to become an industry leader with more than 6,000 vehicles produced and in operation in over 40 countries around the globe.

Len Light, Lenco president and CEO, shared some insight on the company’s roots. “I’ve always believed that, in business, you need to be better, faster, or cheaper than your competitors, or don’t even bother. When we started Lenco, we made the conscious decision to be better on quality and faster on innovative product improvements. We went into the field and listened to our end users, which enabled us to better design the product from an end-users point of view.”

Light says that mindset has been a bedrock principle for everything Lenco does—from ergonomic, customer-focused engineering to precision manufacturing with high-quality equipment, certified materials and certified technicians. Lenco’s facilities reflect this level of expertise, attention to detail and professional, friendly customer service and technical support, according to Light. This has gained Lenco a respected name in the industry and allows the family-run business to successfully compete against much larger companies and overseas competitors, he says.

Over the last 40 years, Lenco has earned the trust of tens of thousands of tactical operators in the United States and around the world. While best known for its iconic BearCat, the product line has evolved into many mission specific models with proprietary features. Lenco armored vehicles have proven to be durable, reliable multi-purpose response and rescue vehicles in a variety of missions, including public safety and medical response and in counter-IED and combat fire protection in International conflict zones. 

“As we transition to our third and fourth generations, we thank all members of our staff, past and present, for their many contributions and years of dedication and hard work in achieving this milestone. We can all be proud of the work we do every day, providing public safety to first responders with life-saving equipment as they perform their jobs in some very challenging, dangerous and life-threatening situations,” Light says.

To learn more about Lenco’s company history or its line of rescue and response vehicles, visit lencoarmor.com/.