Description
Otis Worldwide is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment.
Based in Farmington, Connecticut, U.S, 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 Elisha Otis in 1852, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail.
The Otis Elevator Company was acquired by United Technologies in 1976, but it was spun off as an independent company 44 years later in April 2020 as Otis Worldwide Corporation.
History
The booming elevator market
In 1852, Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator, which automatically comes to a halt if the hoisting rope breaks. After a demonstration at the 1853 New York World's Fair, the elevator industry established credibility.
The Otis Elevator Company was founded in Yonkers, New York, in 1853 by Elisha Otis. When Elisha died in 1861, his sons Charles and Norton formed a partnership and continued the business. During the American Civil War, their elevators were in high demand due to the shipment of war materials. Businesses throughout the United States purchased them. In 1864, with the partnership of J.M. Alvord, the company became known as Otis Brothers & Co. In 1867, Otis opened a factory in Yonkers, New York, the city where the company was founded.
In 1925, the world's first fully automatic elevator, Collective Control, was introduced. In 1931, the company installed the world's first double-deck elevator in New York City.
Otis opened a factory in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1965.
Fayette S. Dunn became president of the company in 1964, succeeding the late Percy Douglas.
1980s changes
Otis was acquired by United Technologies in 1976 and became a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1981, the Yonkers factory closed, and was later purchased by Kawasaki for use as a rail car assembly plant. Also in 1981, Otis signed a business agreement with an elevator company in China and Francois Jaulin became president. In 1989 Karl J. Krapek became president of the company and was replaced in 1991 by Jean-Pierre van Rooy.
During the 1980s, Otis developed the Remote Elevator Monitoring (REM) system that collected behavioral data from 300,000 elevators.
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. That partnership has since ended.
1990s acquisitions
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's Customer Care Centre is still based in the old Evans Lifts building in Leicester. The building has since been extended by Otis. There are some installations of Evans Lifts in use today. Few lifts made by Otis 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. The upper floors are no longer occupied: the lift is no longer used.
In 1997, Steve Page became president of Otis Elevator Co.
In 1999, Otis acquired CemcoLift, Inc, located in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. The operation was later closed in October 2012, with the remaining business being sold to Minnesota Elevator Inc.
21st century
In 2002, Ari Bousbib became president of Otis.
Didier Michaud-Daniel became president of the company in 2008. In 2011, Otis acquired its competitor Marshall Elevator for an undisclosed amount. Beginning in 2011, Otis cut its manufacturing operations in Nogales and supply-chain operations in Tucson, Arizona, as part of a consolidation of manufacturing operations in Florence, South Carolina, where Otis purchased a former Maytag facility on 92 acres. As part of the consolidation, Otis shut down its Bloomington facility in 2012.
In February 2012, Pedro Sainz de Baranda was named president of the company, replacing Michaud-Daniel. In October 2013, Otis won its biggest ever contract to date, to supply 670 elevators and escalators to the Hyderabad Metro. Its second biggest contract had been in 2012, to supply 349 elevators for the Hangzhou metro. In 2015, Otis had to slow its expansion in Asia after orders in the region started to drop.
On October 9, 2017, Judy Marks was named president of Otis Elevator Company, replacing Philippe Delpech. In January 2018, Otis inaugurated the installation of the world's longest double-deck elevator (30 elevators) in the 555-meter Lotte World Tower in Seoul. The "sky shuttle" can take 54 passengers from the 2nd floor to the 121st floor in 1 minute. On November 26, 2018, United Technologies announced it would spin off Otis Elevator into an independent company. Its headquarters are to remain in Connecticut. In 2019, Otis geared up its artificial intelligence technology by capitalizing on predictive technologies.
