News and Case Studies

Stannah/Anlev Seminar held at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) on Wednesday 27 September 2006

Over fifty delegates attended a celebratory and informative seminar to announce the appointment of Stannah as sole UK distributors for Anlev escalators and moving walkways.

Jon Stannah, Managing Director of Stannah Lift Services, opened the proceedings by welcoming all attendees and extending a very special welcome to Otto Poon OBE, Chairman of Anlev. Jon expressed both companies’ delight in ‘a perfect venue for two engineering companies’ and thanked Alec Osborn, President of IMechE for hosting the seminar.

Jon explained that the Stannah/Anlev partnership had swiftly developed after Brian Stannah (Jon’s father and joint Chairman of the Stannah Group) received an e-mail from Otto Poon on 8 December 2005:

“Dear Mr Stannah, We as Anlev would like to look for a new UK distributor for our escalator products.”

Five days later a meeting took place and by mid-summer 2006 an agreement was reached.

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The Institute of Mechanical Engineers

Alec Osborn, President, then welcomed everyone to IMechE, which was founded in 1847. Surrounded by grand portraits of past presidents Alec, the 121st President of ImechE, expressed his delight in hosting the seminar and explained that the institute currently has 40,000 member chartered engineers; 20,000 young engineers are now multi-disciplined, rather than ‘mechanical’ engineers.

An introduction to the Stannah Group

Jon Stannah presented a brief history of the Stannah Group, explaining that
their earliest dated evidence of the company was the mid 1860’s, so they are almost as old as ImechE. Stannah originally made passenger lifts, then goods lifts were added to their product range in the 1960s, followed by stair lifts in 1975 and access platform lifts more recently. The Group now employs more than 1500 people world-wide. Stannah is wholly-owned and actively managed by the Stannah family and operates with the following family values:

• Outstanding Health & Safety
• Recognition that ‘our business is our people’
• Product safety, reliability and innovation
• Market focused teams
• Short lines of communication

It was these ‘short lines of communication’ that were pivotal in the development of the partnership with Anlev.

An introduction to Anlev

Otto Poon shared a brief history of his career and his company; he worked as an engineering apprentice on lifts and escalators and later as an Electrical Mechanical Engineer in the UK. In 1977 Otto started his own business. Anlev is part of The Analogue Group, made up of 12 companies with 1500 employees based in Hong Kong, China and Canada. Like Stannah, the Analogue Group is a large family company with values of honesty, fairness and integrity operating under a Corporate Code of Business Ethics. The Group supply products for Building Services and Environmental Contracts.

Anlev escalators and moving walkways

Alex Cheong, Technical Director for Anlev, explained the specifications and operating systems of the Anlev range of escalators and moving walkways.

Alex stressed that their products are all manufactured to ISO9001 and all European Standards. Anlev’s operating flexibility is the foundation of their customer service. They can manufacture tailor-made products that feature truss extensions (the flat area from which you alight) or even snake like special shapes
for individual applications.

Alex stressed that, like lifts, the manufacturing standards for escalators and moving walkways are very prescriptive. Anlev’s innovation is their ADV Control System. The controller delivers outstanding capabilities to record vast amounts of information that provides a service engineer with immediate, essential information on the operating history, current operating status, travel patterns and electrical input. It can deliver energy-saving operations by programming speed variations outside peak operating times, multi-directional travel and voltage dip override capability. Communication systems for voice annunciation can be programmed to suit every individual installation.

How Stannah deliver Anlev products in the UK

Peter Perry, Director, Stannah Lift Services explained to delegates how Stannah will
supply, install and maintain Anlev products in the UK.

“Stannah Lift Services are the maintenance division of the Stannah Group and their 250 engineers look after over 73,000 lifts of all types from all manufacturers. Within this UK wide portfolio, locally managed out of eleven nationwide branches, were several contracts that included the maintenance of escalators. These usually came about through their ‘national contracts’ service, a centralised management team who provide a single point of contact for large companies with sites across the UK. In addition to maintenance Stannah undertake be-spoke lift modernisation and replacement contracts, often becoming the principal contractor for the site.

More recently Stannah’s larger customers had been requesting a wider capability, beyond current lift services and the new Anlev partnership complements our existing services beautifully. The cultural match between the two companies couldn't be better and, with many retailers installing mezzanine floors to maximise their selling space, it seemed the perfect time to add escalators and moving walkways to the Stannah portfolio.”

Time scales

Peter continued: “From the point of enquiry we can progress your request from Architect’s or Builder’s drawings, matching a product to your needs. Working drawings can be produced in 3 days and order (or approval of drawings) to delivery in the UK can be achieved within 12 weeks.

The unit/s can be delivered straight to site or to an off-site location to assemble and deliver in one piece. Assembly, installation and commission can be completed in as little as 2 weeks. Following commission is a 12 month warranty period in which Stannah will provide maintenance for the escalator/moving walkway.”

It is worth noting here that the product enjoys lifetime support from Anlev, regardless of whether Stannah are the service providers following the warranty period.

A new delivery – to Stannah

Peter concluded by announcing the imminent delivery of a 6 metre moving walkway for installation in Stannah’s own Hampshire-based lift training centre, where all Stannah engineers and many trade partners are trained. The centre is also crucial in the development of the annual intake of 10 Stannah engineering apprentices – an investment ‘providing the managers of tomorrow’.