You are here:
Home / Company / History
History
Jardine Crane, Marsden Crane Hire and Telford and Heartland Crane Hire had all been acquired by the Specialist Hire Group throughout the first decade of the new millennium.
The first acquisition, A Jardine & Sons Ltd. Was made in 2002. Originally formed by Andrew Jardine in 1965 to provide crane hire in the local Lancaster and Morecambe areas, this family business grew steadily throughout the 1970's and 80's expanding its fleet as its reputation grew.
A major breakthrough for the company came when it gained business at the nuclear power station at Heysham, providing the impetus for investment in new cranes and improvements in working practices to meet the high demands of this safety conscious industry. During the 1990’s Jardines worked closely with British Energy, the owners of the Heysham Power Stations to develop safe working practices for all lifting operations and the procedures and policies developed and adopted at Heysham became standard practice on all British Energy nuclear sites. As the impact of BS7121-SafeUse of Cranes, Became apparent, Jardine expanded its offering to provide a full contract lifting service. The Specialist Hire Group added the Crane Hire business to its rapidly expanding fork lift truck hire division, Attracted by the high service levels and value added aspects of contract lifting.
Another strong regional family business, Marsden Crane Hire was added in 2003, Founded by Keith and Christine Marsden in 1981 and based in Wigan, this brought the group's largest crane to 100 tonne lifting capacity with a Grove GMK5100 along with dedicated and experienced staff looking to improve technical standards
In March 2006 the crane fleet of Steel Force Bowmech was bought from the Administrator. This gave the company a base in Manchester which was further expanded in 2008 by the acquisition of the trade and assets of the northern crane division of Beck and Pollitzer Ltd. At the same time the expanding Crane Hire division looked to invest in new cranes, Including a new Demag AC200, 200 tonne capacity crane with 68 metre boom.
Further geographic expansion was achieved when the company purchased the trade assets of Telford Crane Hire Ltd in a deal that extended coverage into the Midlands, the Potteries, Shropshire and Wales, and expanded the hire fleet with over 40 cranes. Coverage was further extended in 2008 with cranes being located at the Rushlift depot in Bishop Auckland with a view to expanding the business in the North East.
In 2010 the regional companies were merged in to one company, Specialist Crane Hire Ltd. To provide a seamless service to our customers across the regions and to ensure the same high operating and safety standards