Minnesota Elevator Inc. (shortened MEI and trading as MEI Total Elevator Solutions) is a company that manufactures, installs, and services elevators. They also manufacture non-proprietary parts and components including controllers, power units, oil coolers, and silencers, most of them through its wholly-owned subsidiary Vertitron (MEI owns it directly only since 2020, before that it shared family ownership).
History[]
MEI was founded by John Romnes in 1971. His operations were originally in a rented farmhouse. Before he founded MEI, John had nine-and-a-half years of industry experience. He was the only full-time employee of MEI for the first seven months. In the early 1970s, with two full-time employees, including John and a part-time employee, he began to expand his business splitting MEI time between service, repair, modernizing and installing elevators. MEI built and installed its first freight elevator in 1973 and its first passenger elevator in 1975 in Mankato; both were new elevators, built from scratch.
From 1971 - 1981, MEI’s service base grew to 110 service contracts, consisting of approximately 330 elevators serviced by two technicians.
“During the first decade of MEI, I feel we were blessed in many ways and experienced God’s favor, which helped lay the groundwork for our future success,” John said.
MEI experienced rapid growth in the ‘80s, adding more employees, building more elevators, acquiring more service contracts and constructing its first factory building. From 10 employees in 1981 the company grew to employing 59 workers by 1990.
In 1989, as a result of the company’s growth, John purchased Vertitron (Vertical Control Corp.), renamed it to Vertitron Midwest, and made most of its production going straightly to MEI, making Vertitron Midwest primarily the first-party elevator components manufacturer for MEI. From 1982 - 1991, MEI’s service base continued to grow to 409 contracts, more than 1,200 elevators and 8 service technicians. In the 1990s, MEI’s service department sold nearly 500 new service contracts.
MEI grew from 59 employees in the early 1990s to 178 in 2001. In 2001, MEI’s service base had grown to 765 contracts, 2,300 elevators and approximately 14 service technicians. After experiencing hard times from 2004 - 2006, John turned to Rick Lowenberg, a lead turnaround consultant. MEI was armed with a new business plan and in 2007; MEI won the Turnaround of the Year Award from the Upper Midwest chapter of the Turnaround Management Association and Rick was named President of MEI. In February 2008, Twin Cities Business magazine featured MEI in an article “Going Back Up,” which underscored that MEI did all the right things to achieve a turnaround. Even in a down economy, MEI’s prospects were still rising thanks to the dedication of the ownership, leadership and employees toward continuous improvement. MEI headquarters in Mankato, MN added 20,000 sq ft to their manufacturing facility in 2015 and another 11,000 sq ft in 2018. In 2017, MEI opened up an office in St Louis, MO to provide elevator maintenance, repair and modernization services. Since 2020, MEI directly owns Vertitron.
External links[]
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| Major elevator and escalator companies | |
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| Full list of companies | List of elevator and escalator companies |
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| Defunct | Dover Elevators • Express Lift • Orenstein & Koppel • Thyssen • thyssenkrupp • Westinghouse |
| Other companies | Third-party elevator maintenance companies |