kone fm . for other uses see kon disambiguation . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2007 learn how and when to remove this template message kone oyj type julkinen osakeyhti traded as nasdaq helsinki knebv otc pink knyjy adr industry engineering and service founded 1910 ; 106 years ago 1910 headquarters helsinki finland corporate headquarters key people antti herlin chairman henrik ehrnrooth president and ceo products elevators escalators automatic building doors revenue 8.647 billion 2015 1 operating income 1.241 billion 2015 profit 1.053 billion 2015 total assets 7.506 billion 2015 total equity 2.575 billion 2015 number of employees 49 000 2015 website www.kone.com kone oyj officially typeset kone and pronounced ko ne founded in 1910 and headquartered in helsinki finland is an international engineering and service company employing some 49 000 personnel worldwide . the firm is one of the largest manufacturers of elevators and escalators worldwide and also provides maintenance services and modernization . in addition kone builds and services automatic doors and gates . the company provides local service for builders developers building owners designers and architects in 1 000 offices in over 50 countries . citation needed since 1924 kone has been owned by one of finland s wealthiest families the herlin family . after harald herlin purchased the company in 1924 he served as its chairman until 1941 . afterwards his son heikki h. herlin took over his father s post from 1941 1987 . control of the company was then handed down to his son pekka herlin which he retained from 1987 2003 . the current chairman of kone s board of directors from 2003 onwards is antti herlin the son of pekka herlin . in the finnish language kone means machine or device . contents 1 history 1.1 1910 1964 1.2 1965 1998 1.3 1999 2014 1.4 alliances and acquisitions 2 awards and rankings 2.1 forbes list of world s most innovative companies 2.2 2014 newsweek green rankings 3 products and trademarks 3.1 kone ultrarope 3.2 kone ecodisc motor 3.3 elevators 3.4 other trademarks 4 cartel fine 5 industrial action 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit 1910 1964 edit kone then known as osakeyhti kone aktiebolag was founded in 1910 as a subsidiary of gottfr . str mberg oy . str mberg s license to import graham brothers elevators was transferred to the new company . kone sold just a few units before terminating the licensing agreement in 1917 . kone then a company with only 50 employees started to make and install its own elevators in 1918 . six years later in 1924 entrepreneur harald herlin bought kone from str mberg and became the new chairman of the company s board of directors . his son heikki h. herlin joined the company and was appointed technical director in 1928 . his office was located in a former margarine factory on haapaniemi street in helsinki that kone had bought and converted into an elevator production facility the previous year . heikki h. herlin took over as kone s president in 1932 . kone s first foreign subsidiary ab kone hissar of sweden was established in 1957 . after world war ii kone was called upon by the finnish government to contribute elevators electric hoists and cranes to the war reparations being paid to the soviet union . this program forced kone to expand its capacity rationalize production processes and learn to meet demanding manufacturing schedules . in the 1950s kone introduced its first group controls automatic doors and hydraulic elevators . heikki h. herlin turned over the president s duties in 1964 to his son pekka who had served as administrative director since 1958 . 1965 1998 edit kone opened a purpose built elevator factory in 1966 in hyvink finland . the following year kone was listed on the helsinki exchanges and started its international expansion through the acquisition of sweden s asea graham and its norwegian and danish affiliates . numerous acquisitions followed during the 1970s and 1980s with only the most significant being listed here . the acquisitions of companies larger and older than kone itself has been seen to have brought kone respectability and lifted the company to a position of market prominence . eventually kone further expanded its business scope . the company became one of the world s largest hoist and crane manufacturers as well as a producer of high tech electronic hospital and laboratory equipment . the former kone corporate offices in munkkiniemi helsinki in 1981 kone entered the american elevator market with the acquisition of new york city based armor elevator company which it continued to operate independently as a wholly owned subsidiary . 2 the company acquired navire cargo gear in 1982 and international macgregor makers of shipboard cargo access equipment . wood handling systems and equipment for pulp and paper mills hydraulic piping systems mining equipment and conveyors and specialized steel components were manufactured at kone s steel foundry . in 1987 after 60 years as a member of kone s board of directors and 46 as its chairman heikki h. herlin retired . prevented by finnish law from serving simultaneously as president and board chairman pekka herlin ceded the presidency to matti matinpalo the first non herlin to occupy the position in 55 years and continued as chairman of the board . in 1990 kone sold its shipboard cargo handling business in 1993 as well as its crane konecranes wood handling and piping systems businesses in 1994 and finally the steel foundry and electronic medical instruments divisions in 1995 . only its elevators escalators and automatic door branches remained . kone acquired the montgomery elevator company of the u.s. in 1994 . soon afterwards the kone corporation purchased a majority of the outstanding shares of o & k rolltreppen gmbh of germany a supplier of escalators and autowalks . in 1998 the company made a 29 million us investment in the construction of an elevator and escalator factory in kunshan china . in 1996 antti herlin the great grandson of the company s founder was appointed kone ceo and deputy chairman of the board of the company that he had now inherited . the company introduced new technology such as the kone ecodisc hoisting machine and the kone monospace elevator technology concept in 1996 . kone was one of the first to introduce machine room less mrl construction in elevators . kone s mrl designs significantly reduced the size of elevator machinery and its lift mechanism by using permanent magnet electric motors pmm . the use of these mechanisms enabled all of the elevator s equipment and its inner workings to be confined to the space above the elevator shaft known as the hoistway overhead instead of needing an entire room dedicated to machinery . at the beginning of the 21st century due to the apparent benefits of kone s pioneering elevator systems rival companies which began competitively marketing machine room less elevators of their own . 1999 2014 edit flags at kone corporate headquarters built in 2001 in keilaniemi espoo finland photo 2003 . the kone corporate headquarters in espoo finland kones chairman of the board pekka herlin died on april 4 2003 after a long illness . antti herlin was subsequently appointed the new chairman of the board in june 2003 . matti alahuhta a former executive vice president at nokia corporation previously serving as the president of nokia mobile phones was later chosen to fill herlin s vacant position as the acting president of the kone corporation . he held the position since 2005 and officially became the firm s president and ceo in 2006 . in april 2014 alahuhta stepped down and kone s cfo at the time henrik ehrnrooth was appointed alahuhta s successor . in 2002 kone acquired partek a finnish industrial engineering company with net sales equal to kone s. partek s business areas specialized in container handling load handling forest machinery and tractors . the tractors were manufactured under the valtra brand . the kone materials handling division thus comprised these partek business areas . in 2003 kone decided to concentrate on container handling and load handling and the tractor and forest machine businesses were sold . the valtra tractor business was sold to agco a worldwide agricultural manufacturer . as the structure of kone materials handling had changed significantly the name kone cargotec was introduced in january 2004 . its business areas were kalmar container handling and hiab load handling . at the end of 2004 kone cargotec acquired macgregor a global marine cargo flow service provider . in august 2004 the kone board of directors presented a plan to split the company into two separately listed companies on the helsinki stock exchanges in june 2005 . one company would comprise kone s existing elevator escalator & building door service business and continue to operate under the name kone corporation . the other company would comprise kone cargotec s business area and operate under the name cargotec corporation . the extraordinary shareholders meeting in december 2004 approved the demerger plan . the demerger was completed in june 2005 . in september 2007 it was announced that kone is proposing to lease several floors of a new riverfront tower to be built on bass street landing which is part of the moline riverfront . 3 also in 2007 it was announced kone had received part of what was then the largest fine ever handed out by the eu commission for local anti competitive practices in the elevator and escalator markets in belgium germany luxembourg and the netherlands relating to time prior to mid 2004 the commission stated that it could only prove its case back to 1995 though evidence allegedly suggested the abuse had started much earlier citation needed . competitors thyssenkrupp schindler group otis elevator co. and mitsubishi elevator europe were also given similar fines . citation needed kone has appealed against the size of the fine currently 142 million eur . in total the industry received 1 billion eur fine for cartel activity across belgium germany luxembourg and the netherlands . 4 finally in 2007 kone announced that they would stop production of hydraulic elevators replacing them with the ecospace mrl elevators due to the hydraulic elevators inefficient energy consumption contamination concerns regarding the use of hydraulic oil and buried cylinders and other environmental concerns . citation needed therefore kone has become the first major brand elevator company to make only traction elevators . 5 alliances and acquisitions edit 1981 kone enters the united states market by acquiring armor elevator co. 1985 kone acquires canadian division of montgomery elevator . 1994 kone s ownership of montgomery in canada opens an alliance with montgomery in the u.s. that led to the full aquistition of montgomery altogether . after working with montgomery to produce elevator and escalator products for 5 years the company was fully integrated into kone us marking the end of the montgomery name in the elevator industry by 1999 . 1995 an alliance was formed as kone and macgregor worked together to create elevators for handling passenger traffic on modern cruise ships . 1998 kone s alliance initiated with toshiba now divided to toshiba elevator and building systems corp. of japan . 2001 kone and toshiba signed a historic agreement to exchange shares and extend toshiba s license to market elevators based on kone ecodisc technology . 2002 kone acquires the industrial engineering company partek 2007 kone announces they will no longer make hydraulic elevators . 2009 kone acquires fairway elevator company in philadelphia to enter the modernization market in that area . 2011 kone builds a new headquarters in the united states with the name of the kone centre in moline illinois the present headquarters is also located there . 2011 kone acquires long