Cambridge Elevating Aims to Revolutionize the Home Elevator Market

Like so many startup companies, Cambridge Elevating Inc. of Cambridge, Canada, took root from a need, a passion and a lot of hard work. Twenty-five years ago, a local entrepreneur had a wife suffering from multiple sclerosis; he couldn’t find anything in the market to help her enjoy life in the home they loved. With limited resources, he hired an engineering-cooperative student to help create custom lifting equipment to provide in-home accessibility. Thus began the journey of a company founded on the passionate ambition of producing solutions to a need.

Today, Cambridge Elevating is a manufacturer of residential and light commercial elevating products. From its humble and sincere beginnings, when its goal was simply to create a device that solved a problem and install it perfectly, the company has experienced year-over-year growth with an extensive North American dealer base and significant share of the southern Ontario market. It has always thought of stellar engineering with the mindset of installation as its necessary components.

The company believes the installation usually dictates the success of a project. In many ways, it is an elevator-installation company first: the installation feedback from dealers and installers dictates product improvement and development. Dealers understand this, and collectively, they and Cambridge Elevating have built a symbiotic relationship. Business for the company is improving faster now than at any time in its history. Resources allocated to new product development and investment in company leadership are considered recent changes that have opened new doors for it and accelerated its objectives. The company sees self awareness as another driver of its success: it knows what it is good at and which changes are necessary in order to make advancements.

Cambridge Elevating CEO and owner Derek S. Hamilton has striven to make the right moves at the right time for consistent growth. With extremely aggressive growth objectives in an industry that supports such a forecast, leadership that has experience in larger companies that have succeeded through rapid growth periods is necessary. Part of that came with the hiring of Ken Cook, P.Eng, who became the company’s president earlier this year (ELEVATOR WORLD, September 2013).

Though Cambridge Elevating provides elevators across all price points, it is known in the industry for custom product offerings. Its customer market has changed, but how it satisfies those customers has not. The demand for high-end custom solutions from southern Ontario has enabled the company to succeed in this arena. Its dealer base benefits from this experience and knowledge. It is reflected not only in the firm’s product offering, but also throughout its sales process and in technical support.

The company wants its newest response to luxury demands to revolutionize the residential elevator industry. This exists in the form of a tablet car-operating panel with WiFi integration. It can allow for myriad possibilities for both the elevator contractor and homeowner. The Cambridge Elevating UpLink communication system provides constant connection to the elevator service provider. It can be used to view and send diagnostic reports, book service appointments, check stocks, listen to music and more.

Home elevators are evolving, and as the public better understands the product, demands and expectations for it will increase. A team of like-minded, forward-thinking people relentlessly tries to improve every element of the product, the business and the Cambridge Elevating experience. The company is embarking on a very exciting time for its employees and customers.