KONE becomes first elevator company to receive prestigious GOOD DESIGN award

KONE Corporation has been awarded a 2008 GOOD DESIGN award for its innovative KONE FourSeasons™ elevator design concept. It is the first elevator and escalator company to ever receive such a prestigious award. Founded in 1950, GOOD DESIGN is renowned as one of the most recognized design awards program in the world. The awards are given by The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies to highlight the best new designs and design innovations for products and graphics which were made between 2006 and 2008.

Created in 2006, KONE’s FourSeasons™ concept is part of the KONE Design collection and combines different colors and shades which reflect the seasons and cultural ambiance of different regions. Over 70 specially designed alternatives offer customers hundreds of different possibilities to match the different interiors and architecture.

“We are very pleased to have received this important award which showcases the innovative design work KONE has done in interior for elevators,” says Anne Stenros, Vice President, Design, KONE. “KONE’s offering has been designed to make it easier and faster for a customer to select a sophisticated and stylish design that will truly fit a building’s setting. During the design phase, we focused our efforts on giving each car interior a certain ambiance or mood that would pleasantly surprise the passengers.”

For more information on KONE’s award winning designs, visit www.kone.com.

KONE’s objective is to offer the best people flow experience by developing and delivering solutions that enable people to move smoothly, safely, comfortably and without waiting in buildings in an increasingly urbanizing environment. KONE provides its customers with industry-leading elevators, escalators and innovative solutions for modernization and maintenance, and is one of the global leaders in its industry. In 2008, KONE had annual net sales of EUR 4.6 billion and over 34,800 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd in Finland.

www.kone.com

For further information, please contact:

Anne Korkiakoski, Executive Vice President, Marketing & Communications,
tel. +385 (0)204 75 4775 or +358 50 67411