Number of employees More than 65,000 Founder Elisha Otis Revenue 12 billion USD (2015) | Website www.otisworldwide.com Founded 1853 Acquisition date 1976 | |
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Industry Vertical transport systems Products Elevators and escalators Headquarters Farmington, Connecticut, United States Parent organization United Technologies Corporation Subsidiaries Marshall Elevator, Otis GmbH & Co. OHG Profiles | ||
The Otis Elevator Company is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways and related equipment. A pioneer in its field, Otis is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems, principally focusing on elevators, moving walkways and escalators. The company pioneered the development of the "safety elevator", invented by Otis in 1852, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail.
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Otis has installed elevators in some of the world's most famous structures, including the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, the original World Trade Center, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Petronas Twin Towers, Burj Khalifa, CN Tower, the Winchester Mystery House, the Hotel del Coronado, the Demarest Building (first electric elevator), the Singing Tower at Bok Tower Gardens and the Skylon Tower.
History
In 1852 Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator, which automatically comes to a halt if the hoisting rope breaks. After a demonstration at the 1854 New York World's Fair the elevator industry was on its way.
Otis was founded in Yonkers, New York in 1853 by Elisha Otis. It was acquired by United Technologies in 1976 and is a wholly owned subsidiary. Otis has more than 64,000 employees, with 2014 revenue of US$13.0 billion. The company headquarters are located in Farmington, Connecticut.
Otis has also dabbled in horizontal automated people-mover "shuttle" systems, such as the Otis Hovair. In 1996, Otis formed a joint venture called "Poma-Otis Transportation Systems" with the French company Pomagalski to promote these products, however the partnership has since ended.
Otis Elevator Company purchased Evans Lifts in the UK when Evans Lifts Ltd went bankrupt in 1997 during its merge with Express Lift Company with the name ExpressEvans. It was the oldest and largest manufacturer of lift equipment in the UK and was based in Leicester, England. Otis' Customer Care Centre is still based in the old Evans Lifts building in Leicester. The building has since been extended by Otis.
There are still some installations of Evans Lifts being used today. Very few lifts which are made by Otis themselves are branded as Evans. Notably, an original Evans Lift is still in the Silver Arcade in Leicester. It formerly transported people to the upper floors, but the upper floors are no longer occupied so the lift is no longer used.
President and chairman
Cartel
In February 2007, European Union regulators fined Otis Elevator €225 million for being part of a price-fixing cartel on the Belgian, Dutch, Luxembourg and German market. Competitors ThyssenKrupp, Schindler Group, Kone and Mitsubishi Elevator Europe were also fined similar amounts in the same cartel.
Biggest contracts
In October 2013, Otis won its biggest ever contract, it will supply 670 elevators and escalators to the Hyderabad Metro. Its second biggest contract was in 2012, to supply 349 elevators for the Hangzhou metro.
Locations
Otis opened a factory in Bloomington, Indiana in 1965. During the 1990s they moved some manufacturing operations from Bloomington to Nogales, Mexico. In 2012 and 2013, Bloomington and Nogales manufacturing operations were consolidated in Florence, SC. They still use some office space at the Bloomington site.
Otis had a factory in Yonkers, New York. It was closed in 1983 and is now a Kawasaki rail car assembly plant.
Otis had a large factory in Harrison, New Jersey.
In 1999, Otis acquired CemcoLift, Inc, located in Hatfield, PA. The operation was later closed in October 2012, with the remaining business being sold to Minnesota Elevator Inc.
Otis has a test tower facility in Bristol, CT and a Service Center in Bloomfield, CT that serve its businesses in North and South America. Other test towers and service centers are located throughout the world.