Knowsley Lifts are fast approaching their 25^th year anniversary and during this time there have been many changes, many happy customers and a lot of learning for everybody.

It was June 1989 when Tommy Murphy and Steve Fitzgerald first met. They both started at the Liverpool Branch of The Express Lift Company during the same week. Tommy was 23 and Steve was still an apprentice and only 17.

Tommy’s route into the Lift Industry came via him starting on a training scheme with the EITB (Engineering Industry Training Board) at that time provided by the Merseyside Training Council. They are now known as the North West Training Council and Knowsley Lifts still currently work closely with them for the training of all our Apprentices and Improvers. Tommy consequently successfully served a very varied mechanical apprenticeship, then via O&K Escalators arrived at Express Lifts.

Steve managed to secure an apprenticeship directly from school with The Express Lift Company , and began his apprenticeship by being “posted” to Express Lifts HQ and factory in Northampton at the age of 16, with him having to live in a flat owned by the company close to the factory. He had to do a lot of growing up fast being down there on his own and having to be self -sufficient, literally a couple of weeks from leaving school to working and living 200 miles away. During his year in Northampton, he obtained great experience across all Engineering disciplines as well as through his College Studies.

Although Tommy was a HNC qualified engineer, being new to the lift industry meant he had to successfully complete the lift training modules also to ensure his safety and proficiency before working alone in the industry, Steve, also now a fully HNC qualified Engineer successfully completed the modules as part of his apprenticeship so they both “learnt the ropes” very much in parallel.

Tommy recalls, “Although at the beginning of a transition period the Lift Industry was very different in 1989 and despite Express being one of the largest companies in the UK, the Engineers would pretty much turn up for work in casual wear, with workwear, PPE, and corporate identity not even a thought at that time. The Characters in the branch (and throughout the industry) were akin to something from a Drama/Comedy with rich stories behind them all that could easily fill a book! There was an influx of approximately half a dozen young Engineers/Apprentices at the same time, working and learning alongside the “old fellas” and we realise and indeed concede the ‘old fellas’ roles are the positions we now both fill here at KLS! Sadly, time has meant that the majority of the old characters are no longer with us, although we are still in regular contact some of the relatively young men at that time who are now in late 60’s and 70’s!”

Once qualified Steve and Tommy found themselves working together in the daytime and also on a night call rota, they were both very proficient engineers, and although they were both young, they were trusted wholly by management. They became close friends (despite Steve being a Red and Tommy a Blue) and shared a similar upbringing and early life living just over a mile apart Tommy in Anfield and Steve in Kensington, with them both doing well in school but choosing to go into engineering rather than University path that was not seen as the natural route it is these days.

It was during these times working together that they first discussed going it alone, despite there being relatively few examples of independent lift companies making a success of it at the time and the stark realisation that the UK market was dominated by the Large Multi-nationals as well as the remaining UK lift manufacturers (Express being one of them).

The catalyst to them making the decision came in 1997 when Express was ultimately bought out by Otis with the subsequent Express-Evans Lifts merger a by-product of the takeover. They both quickly recognised changes to the company ethos and operations had taken a clear backward step. Tommy had moved back into his Dad’s that year following divorce, and sadly lost his Dad in the September of that year and these events together with the buyout prompted him to take stock of which path to take and to make sure he would not have regrets of not using the skills and work ethic he had developed. Firm discussions and a strategy to go it alone were had by both and they made the decision to hand in their notice in October 1997.

In the early days of Knowsley Lifts they worked as sub-contracting teams for Otis, Thyssen and Kone, often carrying out works all over the UK they had not done on the “Service” side of the industry for Express. All disciplines were tackled from small repairs to major refurbishments to installations, all the time learning and gaining invaluable experience and developing new contacts.

In 2001 Steve’s Dad Joe joined the company, leaving his role in Senior Management at OTIS. Joe, too was  disgruntled at the developments in what was then Otis Lifts and following his appointment, Knowsley rented their first offices in The Cotton Exchange in Liverpool City Centre (Room 101 believe it or not!). Following this they began to pick up service contracts and began working towards ISO accreditation and ensuring compliance to all standards where necessary as their ambition was not simply to remain sub-contractors but to build up to a similar size to the old Express Branch and provide the same great standards of customer service and professionalism.

Slowly they transitioned from having four teams working for multi-nationals to having a team or more working for their own customers and others carrying out service duties, then ultimately being self-sufficient.

Over the years Knowsley Lifts have trained 20+ engineers, the first of whom trained alongside Tommy and Steve. We are very proud to be able to say that out of these Jay Maloney has now progressed right through the ranks to be Service Director, and Graham Welsh being our chief commissioning engineer (Both having 20+ years’ service each!)

Knowsley moved out of the City Centre to a more convenient location at Binns Road that they still occupy to this day (The site of the old United Biscuits/Crawfords factory that Tommy’s Dad , Uncle and Auntie worked for many years until being made redundant in early 80’s). This location offers perfect access to the main route in and out of the city , with plenty of storage and parking when compared to the old city centre offices.

Due to the broad range of knowledge at Knowsley Lifts and continuous exploration of new products and processes, Knowsley have always been keen to be early adapters of new products and technology that allow them to deliver bespoke solutions to clients need that our competitors have neither the ability or will to offer. They are particularly strong in refurbishment solutions and have the wherewithal to select the solution and the method of delivery to suit the many different environments they must work in. The re-use of existing equipment where possible provides a great saving in Carbon Footprint with this being  increasingly considered as a solution rather than the old ways of rip out and start anew (which can result in often fitting products that have shorter lifespans also). Knowsley have also been great exponents of offering energy efficient solutions that can now save up to 50% energy compared to original technology.

Moving into the 25^th Year they now have many happy long-term customers and also a growing number of new customers who realise the quality of products and service delivered.

Steve’s Dad retired some years ago now , but is still keeping well and has not lost the love of lifts and will be part of our 25^th year celebrations. Tommy and Steve have moved on from being the youngsters in the work environment to being “more mature” individuals but have lost none of the ambition to keep learning and deliver the very best service possible to all of their customers (and feed the ethos down the generations to todays youngsters) . Knowsley have always taken care to ensure expansion has never come at the detriment of existing customers but are now at the stage where we are comfortable we can provide the same great service to customers from further afield, neighbouring locations who have made enquiries. Therefore as well as us continuing to look after all our  current customers (and friends) we are looking forward immensely to having many more to look after come our 30^th year celebrations.