Top 10 Best Elevator Companies in North America

Skyscrapers and super tall buildings are a familiar sight in our North American cities, and it is likely to increase in the following years as more people and multinational companies move into urban centres. The number of elevators servicing our vertical landscape makes them one of the most significant people and good movers in the transportation and logistics industry; because of that we’ve listed off the 10 biggest elevator companies in North America.

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10 - Hyundai Elevator

Hyundai Group is a South Korean conglomerate founded in 1947 as a construction company. With government assistance, founder Chung Ju-yung and his family members rapidly expanded into various industries, eventually becoming South Korea's second Enterprise Group. The company spun off many of its better known businesses after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, including Hyundai Automotive Group. The Hyundai Group now focuses on elevators.

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9 - Mitsubishi Electric

Established on 15 January 1921, Mitsubishi Electric develops and manufactures electronics and architectural equipment including elevators, escalators and moving walkways. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, it is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi, a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. The company held the record for the fastest elevator in the world, in the 70-story Yokohama Landmark Tower, from 1993 until 2005.

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8 - True Canadian Elevator

A boutique Canadian company, they believe that customer service and communication and have been essential in their regional growth. To maintain the trust, every member of True Canadian Elevators team is committed to providing exceptional maintenance to prolong the life expectancy of their clients equipment. Coming from the larger elevator controller manufacturing and component repair companies, each of their team members, engineers, and tradesmen have been hand selected making them competitive to companies like the Big Five.

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7 - AVT Beckett

AVT Began back in 2006 building Structural and Cab Packages to supply to the Toronto Elevator Market. In 2008 the company purchased long running Beckett Elevators and were able to add the Beckett UL labelled Entrance and Door packages to their product line, thus becoming AVT Beckett Elevators. In the 10 years since, AVT has grown and expanded each year now supplying customers throughout North America. In 2017 they opened their first United States plant in Memphis Tennessee. This 100 000 square foot, state of the art facility, will continue following the AVT mission in supplying customers from across the USA with the same high-end products their customers have come to expect.

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6 - Delta Elevator

Founded in 1967, Delta Elevator Co Ltd is a privately-owned Canadian business based in Kitchener, Ontario. From a single elevator mechanic, Delta has grown to become one of the few fully-integrated North American elevator companies that engineers, manufactures, installs, services, and maintains elevating devices. Delta’s commitment to hiring only the best staff makes them a local industry leader in built-to-order, and custom elevating devices. Their bespoke engineering department includes Mechanical, Electrical, and Systems Design Engineers.

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5 - Fujitec

Fujitec was founded by late Honorary Chairman, Mr. Shotaro Uchiyama in February 1948 for the purpose of research and development, manufacturing, installation and maintenance of elevators, escalators and travellators for Japan’s rapidly industrializing economy. Since then the company has expanded and now has operational headquarters located in the Americas, South Asia, East Asia and Europe. With a network of 11 state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and several sales service offices, industry leading test towers, and a global network of engineers, Fujitec has become one of the top five elevator companies in the world.

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4 - KONE

Kone Corporation founded in 1910 and headquartered in Espoo near Helsinki, Finland, is an international engineering and service company employing some 55,000 personnel across 60 countries worldwide. In the Finnish language Kone means "machine" or "device". The company builds and services autowalks, automatic doors and gates, in addition to their escalators and elevators division. The company provides local service for builders, developers, building owners, designers and architects in 1,000 offices in over 50 countries. Since 1924, KONE has been owned by one of Finland's wealthiest families after Harald Herlin purchased the company.

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3 - Schindler

The Schindler Group is a global leader in the manufacturing of escalators, moving walkways, and elevators worldwide. Founded in Switzerland in 1874, the company is present in more than 140 countries and employs more than 58,000 persons worldwide. The company has production facilities the United States and Switzerland, as well as Spain, Slovakia, and China. Schindler entered the North American elevator market with the purchase of Toledo-based Haughton Elevator Company in 1979. Then in 1989, the company dramatically increased its presence in the United States after acquiring the Elevator/Escalator division of Westinghouse, one of the largest producers of elevators and escalators at the time, as well as an iconic company in Americas electric/mechanical legacy.

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2 - ThyssenKrupp Elevator

ThyssenKrupp is a German MNC, which initially started as a joint venture of two companies, Thyssen AG and Krupp. Both were dealing in steel and underwent a merger in 1999 resulting in one of the largest metal companies in the globe. Today Thyssen Krupp is the world’s top steel supplier. The elevator division sits comfortably in the corporations line up and leads as one of the Big Five in Canada and USA. With its main headquarters in Essen, Germany, ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas has regional headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States. TK undertakes manufacturing and installation and maintenance of escalators, elevators and moving walks. In 2020 ThyssenKrupp agreed to sell its elevators division to a consortium of Advent, Cinven and Germany’s RAG foundation for 17.2 billion euros ($18.7 billion USD) in what could be the world’s largest buyout this year.

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1 - OTIS

The Otis Elevator Company is an American company (owned by United Technologies) that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment. Based in Farmington, Connecticut, Otis is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems. The company pioneered the development of the "safety elevator", invented by Elisha Otis in 1852 and has been a leader ever since.

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, Petronas Twin Towers, Burj Khalifa, CN Tower,, the Hotel del Coronado, and the Demarest Building (first electric elevator).

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Former elevator manufacturers

• Dover Corporation: Elevator division acquired by Thyssen AG in 1999, now Thyssenkrupp.

• Express: bought by Otis at late 1990s

• Montgomery Elevator: Acquired by Kone, Canadian division in 1985 and U.S. division in 1994.

• Schweizerische Aufzügefabrik AG

• Thyssen AG: replaced by Thyssenkrupp in 1999

• Westinghouse: Elevator division bought by Schindler in 1989

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