KONE partners Lanka Elevator Engineering for Sri Lanka foray

KONE, a global leader in the elevators and escalators industry, is expanding its operations into the Sri Lankan market and have entered into a distributorship with Lanka Elevator Engineering (Pvt) Ld., which has about 30 years of experience in installing, maintaining and servicing elevators and escalators.

The agreement was signed by South Region Director G. Swaminathan and Lanka Elevator Engineering Managing Director Karl Perera in Chennai this week in the presence of KONE Elevator India Managing Director Neeraj Sharma.

Speaking on the occasion Sharma, said, “With a strong GDP growth of almost 8% in 2011 the country is slated for a good growth in the coming years. The tourism industry will be seeing great growth and this will call for better infrastructure facilities, which will spur the growth of the construction sector. We see a good potential for us in this market and are confident that this distributorship will help us in expanding our operations.”

KONE will be supplying elevators to the Sri Lankan market from their global supply units and Chennai. Lanka Elevator Engineering has skilled personnel, some of them who have been technically trained in places like Korea and Singapore in all aspects of the elevator and escalator needs.

Perera said, “We have been in the industry for a long time and have a lot of expertise in handling this segment. Our tie up with KONE only strengthens our confidence in serving the market better.”

KONE’s history of innovation is one of the company’s success factors. KONE has always provided systematic and long-term investment into its R&D capabilities. In its striving towards serving customers to perfection, KONE explores technologies in other industries and monitors changing markets, trends, customer needs, and working methods. KONE has introduced a wide range of major innovations throughout the years.

KONE is one of the global leaders in the elevators and escalators industry. The company has been committed to understanding the needs of its customers for the past century, providing industry-leading elevators, escalators and automatic building doors as well as innovative solutions for modernisation and maintenance.

The company’s objective is to offer the best people flow experience by developing and delivering solutions that enable people to move smoothly, safely, comfortably and without waiting in buildings in an increasingly urbanising environment. In 2011, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 5.2 billion and on an average 35,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.

KONE’s presence in India dates back to 1984 and today it is the leading elevator company in India. Based in Chennai, KONE India serves customers all over the country through its 40 branches and provides sustainable people flow solutions for India’s rapidly growing cities. It employs about 3000 + people in the country.

KONE’s production unit in Chennai produces elevators for the Indian market as well as for Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The production unit also manufactures components for modernisation projects in other Asian-Pacific markets such as Australia, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.

Chennai also has a training centre where KONE’s installation engineers and field mechanics are trained to meet KONE India’s strong reputation for high quality and uncompromised safety, as well as the expectations of Indian customers, when installing and maintaining elevators and escalators. KONE’s global technology and engineering center is a testing and research hub, which supports the latest technology and development of future KONE solutions.

KONE contributes to sustainable urban development with eco-efficient solutions that offer energy savings in buildings and deliver the best user experience. KONE is a pioneer in developing Eco-efficient solutions. KONE also actively contributes to local social development through its community involvement initiatives.

KONE supports a childcare center and a consulting service for local mothers in Ayanambakkam village that provides information about children’s nutrition and other important issues including vaccination programs. KONE also sponsors one local secondary school and participates on a needs basis in emergency and local infrastructure improvement programs together with other local companies.