Kone Inc.

Kone Inc., a foreign-owned manufacturer of elevator and escalator systems headquartered in Moline, Illinois, provides vertical transportation maintenance, repair, modernization, and emergency services to federal agencies as a prime contractor on 99% of its federal awards, competing on full-and-open basis without set-asides. The company operates a substantial federal footprint spanning 172 customer agencies with 2,772 prime awards and 27 sub-awards, generating $587 million in combined potential value and $317.2 million in obligated dollars across recent activity (2022–2026).

Kone's customer concentration anchors with the General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service (PBS), which dominates by award volume: PBS Region 5 alone accounts for 189 awards worth $35.9 million, while PBS Region 8 leads potential-value ranking with 45 awards valued at $46.5 million. The Department of Veterans Affairs (110 awards, $675 thousand), Department of the Navy Installations Command (96 awards, $24.1 million), and Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center Miami (85 awards, $1.8 million) round out the top five. The split between volume and dollars reveals PBS Region 8's courthouse and federal-building modernization scope driving higher per-award values, while PBS Region 5 moves higher transaction volume at lower individual order sizes.

Kone's vehicle position centers on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), the foundational contract generating 889 task orders worth $126.6 million in combined potential value. The company also holds three named IDIQs: a $20 million multi-regional elevator O&M vehicle with GSA Region 8 (award date October 1, 2022; completion September 30, 2026); a $7.33 million single-award IDIQ with the Department of Defense Southwest Region for Rock Island Arsenal elevator maintenance (award date November 1, 2024; completion October 31, 2029); and a $3.56 million single-award contract with Navy Installations Command for Naval Submarine Base New London (award date February 1, 2026; completion January 31, 2031). Single-award vehicles with Veterans Integrated Service Network 15 ($1.4 million), GSA Region 5 ($2.1 million), and the Bureau of Reclamation ($1.5 million BPA) add regional depth. Named delivery orders illustrate concrete capability work: a $2.689 million elevator remodel and upgrades at the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in Salt Lake City (GSA Region 8, September 2024); a $2.863 million modernization at James L. King Federal Courthouse in Miami (Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, August 2024); a $1.6 million modernization and testing at Greensboro L.R. Preyer Federal Courthouse (Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, July 2023); and routine emergency and maintenance orders ranging $5 thousand to $359 thousand at federal buildings, VA medical centers, courthouses, military bases, and detention facilities nationwide.

Activity trajectory shows stability with modest growth: 79 awards in 2022, 78 in 2023, 88 in 2024, then slowing to 46 in 2025 and 20 in 2026 (through July 2026). The 43 awards with completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $38.7 million and represent recompete exposure, particularly at GSA PBS and VA contracts where renewal cycles cluster. NAICS and PSC concentration reflect Kone's core elevator and escalator specialty: Other Building Equipment Contractors (1,588 awards, the dominant category), Elevator and Moving Stairway Manufacturing (228 awards), and Commercial Machinery Repair and Maintenance (212 awards) together account for the majority of the award base. PSC codes show Maint/Repair/Rebuild—Materials Handling (568 awards) and Miscellaneous (527 awards) dominating, with Freight Elevators (208 awards) and Maintenance of Office Buildings (184 awards) as secondary specializations.

Service Contract Inventory data captures Kone's federal services contracting above the $150 thousand reporting threshold. SCI-reported invoicing totaled $11.1 million across FY2022–FY2024: $25 thousand in FY2022 (1.4 FTEs), $5 million in FY2023 (8.9 FTEs), and $6.1 million in FY2024 (48.4 FTEs), showing rapid FTE and revenue growth. The SCI dataset covers 93 records: 81 as prime, 12 as named subcontractor. Across prime records, median government-paid hourly rates run $278.21/hr, with rates ranging from $147.57/hr (10th percentile) to $669.60/hr (90th percentile), reflecting a mix of routine technician work and specialized elevator engineering labor. On SCI-reportable prime contracts, Kone self-performs all labor with zero average subcontractor-hours share, indicating a vertically integrated service-delivery model. SCI is a partial view: it excludes goods (elevators themselves, hydraulic components, parts), products, micro-purchases below $150 thousand, classified work, and non-federal revenue; the $11.1 million SCI figure represents less than 2% of Kone's $587 million combined federal potential value and excludes the vast majority of the company's federal transactional base.

Kone operates primarily as a prime contractor (99% of awards), with sub-award activity concentrated under a small number of facility-management and operations primes. Named sub-award relationships include Valiant Government Services LLC (Fort Bliss elevator maintenance support, April 2026 and February 2026); Central Plateau Cleanup Company LLC (Hanford Central Plateau elevator maintenance and repair, November 2024); and M.c. Cleansvendornametrait.phpdean, Inc. (Hawaii and Department of Energy facility elevator maintenance, October 2024 and ongoing). These sub-awards typically represent embedded elevator-maintenance tasks within larger facilities O&M contracts, where Kone provides specialized vertical-transportation services as a component of integrated facility operations. The sub-footprint signals that Kone feeds into major facilities contractors as a specialized supplier rather than operating as a broad services feeder; the company's identity centers on prime ownership of federal elevator and escalator work.

Kone competes exclusively on full-and-open basis with no use of small-business set-asides across its federal award history. The company's posture is that of a mainstream federal vendor operating through established GSA and agency vehicles, not pursuing or relying on socioeconomic designations. Foreign ownership and for-profit manufacturing structure position Kone as a specialized equipment and services provider competing on technical capability, pricing, and past performance rather than minority or disadvantaged-business status.