The Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems today, principally elevators and escalators. Founded in Yonkers, New York, USA in 1853 by Elisha Otis, the company pioneered the development of the safety elevator, invented by Otis, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail. Otis made skyscrapers possible by providing safe mechanical transport to upper floors.
Otis has installed elevators in some of the world's famous structures, including the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, World Trade Center, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Petronas Twin Towers, CN Tower and the Skylon Tower.
Statistically, Otis is the world's most popular transportation company . It is estimated that the equivalent of the world's population travel in Otis elevators, escalators and moving walkways every three days. According to United Technologies, Otis elevators carry the equivalent of the world's population every nine days.
Otis was acquired by United Technologies in 1976 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary. The company has over 60,000 employees, with 2004 revenue of US$9.0 billion. The company headquarters are located in Farmington, Connecticut.
Otis has also dabbled in horizontal automated people-mover "shuttle" systems. In 1996, Otis formed a joint venture called Poma-Otis Transportation Systems with the French company Pomagalski to promote these products.
Otis Elevator Company purchased Express Evans Lifts in the UK. Evans Lifts was the oldest and largest manufacturer of lift equipment in the UK and was based in Leicester, England before being acquired by Express Lifts of Northampton, to be known as Express Evans Lifts. Otis' Customer Care Centre is still based in the old Express Evans Lifts building in Leicester. The building has since been extended by Otis.
There are still some installations of Evans Lifts being used today. 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.
