When world-class athletes vie for medals at the Beijing Olympics next August, the Farmington-based Otis Elevator Co. already will have scored some big wins in China.
The world’s top elevator maker — which has elevators in the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building — has landed 25 Olympics-related deals worth $100 million, including the installation of escalators and elevators in Beijing’s gleaming subway stations.
Otis is among the scores of U.S. companies racing for Olympics business glory, hoping to lay the groundwork for future deals in fast-growing China.
It’s been a long march for Otis since the company first sold elevators to China one century ago. Working closely with Chinese manufacturers, government officials and universities, Otis now oversees 16 factories and joint ventures and 10,000 employees in China.
Otis, owned by United Technologies, hauled in $1 billion, or 10 percent of its global revenue last year, from its China operations, says CEO Ari Bousbib. He expects the demand for elevators to soar, as millions of Chinese migrate from the countryside to cities each year.
“The Olympics will mark the beginning of prolonged growth for China and our business for the next 25 years,” Bousbib says. “China shows no signs of slowing down.”
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Going For Gold
All want a slice of the $200 billion that China is projected to spend through next year on sports venues, office and residential buildings, transportation, tourism, legal and financial services and other Olympics-related business in its cities.
“It’s going to be a frenzy of commercialism here, a party like no other,” says James McGregor, chairman of the JL McGregor & Co. business advisory firm in Beijing and author of “One Billion Customers.” “You’ve got an emerging economy of 1.3 billion people that’s like America in the 1950s. Companies are looking to stamp their brand name on this market through the Olympics.”
Not surprisingly, most of the Olympics contracts have gone to China’s private and state-run businesses, such as the Chinese construction firms that proudly hung giant banners last year inside the Olympics stadium, called the “Bird’s Nest” because of its nest-like steel-and-concrete design.
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Global Brand Building
But U.S. companies are making a strong showing. Hyatt and JW Marriott are opening hotels in Beijing. Caterpillar’s heavy digging and paving machines were used to build the stadium, the swimming venue and the marathon course. And so far, Visa, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, GE and other multinationals have forked out $1.9 billion to Beijing organizers and the International Olympic Committee to be partners, sponsors and licensees.
Much is at stake in China, which has grown rapidly from a Third World country to an economic power that many predict will rival the United States and Japan in coming years. A survey by the U.S.-China Business Council found that 83 of the 100 U.S. firms that responded were profitable last year in China.
At Olympic venues, GE is providing clear-burning turbines, solar lighting, water-filtration technology and other products, while Coca-Cola is using 6,400 coolers and vending machines free of hydrofluorocarbons, a greenhouse gas.
