In early November 2019, Elkay installed a Smartwell Beverage System at Exchange State Bank in Lanark, IL. The product has been enjoyed by visitors, employees, and clientele. Elkay is a family-owned manufacturing company, serving a wide array of customers for plumbing, commercial, industrial, retail, and food service goods and services. The business started producing Smartwell this past year and installed the unique, premium beverage dispensers in many professional settings, such as Exchange State Bank in Lanark.
Produced in Lanark, Elkay’s Smartwell beverage system offers businesses the ability to serve a variety of flavored and enhanced refreshments. Users have the option to create custom beverages on demand with no disposable bottles or cans. With an intuitive, easy-to-operate, touch screen, users can mix-and-match fruit flavors and add enhancements to fresh, filtered water, either still or sparkling.
Installation of Smartwell required only eight square feet of space plus access to electricity, a water source (that can be up to ten feet away from the unit), and a Wi-Fi network. Russ Hansen, Manager of Service at Elkay’s Lanark location, and his team were responsible for overseeing the installation process from start to finish. Hansen says, “It is nice to see Smartwell locally-installed, to know that not only was it built in the same building where I work, but that it is installed within the citywhere I work. There is a sense of pride in that. Seeing this being installed in new places is exciting.”
A strong supporter of local business, Exchange State Bank was founded in 1878. Matthew Zumdahl, President of Exchange State Bank stated, “As a locally-owned and managed community bank, we take pride in the growth and prosperity of our community. [We] continually invest in and support our local businesses….Elkay also continues to invest in their location here in Lanark, providing good jobs, local sponsorships, and other community support. With that in mind, we were proud to partner with them to install a Smartwell in our lobby. [This will] showcase to the community this innovative new product that is being built in Lanark. We encourage the public to stop in, check it out, and have a drink on us.”
Lanark has served as a key manufacturing location for Elkay, contributing greatly to the company’s overall growth. Today, with a total of 34 employees at the Elkay Lanark plant, Elkay desires to continue to increase employment in the area. Kraig Kniss, Vice President of Operations at Elkay says, “Elkay has been in business for almost 100 years, and the Lanark plant and community have been a big part of our success since 1976. The Smartwell Beverage Dispenser is an exciting new product for us, and we are pleased to build it in the Lanark plant. We are investing in a new production area, with a state-of-the-art production line, which we plan to expand in the years ahead, as the Smartwell portfolio of product expands and volumes grow.”
Kraig continues, “Our employees in Lanark and surrounding areas are a highly committed work team who take pride in producing high-quality products. In addition to Smartwell, Elkay has plans to expand production in the Lanark plant to other product lines, providing more production capacity for the Water Cooler and Bottle Filler production now produced in our Savanna, IL, operations as those products continue to grow.”
About Elkay Manufacturing Family-owned since 1920, Elkay has made innovative products and delivered exceptional customer care for almost a century. While proud to be America’s number one company selling kitchen sinks, Elkay expanded its commercial offerings more than four decades ago Today the company delivers faucets, water coolers, drinking fountains, Smartwell Water Delivery Systems, and the award-winning ezH2O bottle filling stations, in addition to world-class stainless steel and quartz sinks. Elkay Interior Systems business is a global leader in the design and buildout of branded retail environments, for some of the world’s most fast-growing and beloved restaurant and hospitality brands, such as Burger King and Dunkin Donuts. Elkay Commercial Systems provides stainless steel products for commercial kitchens around the globe. Like your family, Elkay has values and traditions that endure, like our commitment to sustainability and giving back to our community. Headquartered in Oak Brook, IL, Elkay employs over 2500 employees worldwide, working from 21 locations across the U. S., China, and Mexico. Visit elkay.com.