The people who sell cranes

Paterson Simons has operated in Africa for more than 60 years. In 1977, it became a dealer for Coles, which was later acquired by Grove, and, in turn, by Manitowoc.

Historically, the crane market in West Africa was relatively undeveloped and equipment was purchased secondhand, often from other projects. There was a wide range of Manitowoc/ Grove product in the market, and we supplied spares and service.

We've worked to raise the standards of training in the region, particularly in the last seven years. We've invested a lot in training engineers. For example as part of their extensive training programme our engineers receive a total of six weeks factory training on all terrain cranes.

In West Africa there's no real legislation covering lifting equipment, so we've worked with US-based CICB to train operators to OSHA standards. We provide full pre-delivery inspection and warranty of equipment, OEM parts, and have a team of international engineers to train local staff. Within our team we now have three local Grove engineers who have laptop diagnostic access capabilities with further engineers scheduled to attain this level in the near future.

We provide annual and scheduled maintenance and, through our certification company, lifting gear inspections to OSHA/ANSI and LOLER/BS standards.

All of this has helped to make investing in new cranes worthwhile for our customers-previously, when levels of training and safety were not as developed, there was a risk that a new crane could be damaged or tipped over due to misuse.

There is now more confidence in purchasing, and the region has seen an asset boom. In 2012 we delivered 30 new cranes into the region, which is unlikely to be repeated-but it wasn't a surprise, as customers had realised the premium being paid to maintain older equipment and therefore wanted reliable new equipment.

The Groves suit the African market very well. The 75t RT880E is the standard crane for taking the skip off the back of a CAT777 dump truck, for example. Grove all terrain cranes also feature the Megatrack suspension, which is useful as many of the roads outside major cities are not in good condition, and mine sites can cover large areas.

Most of the market for Groves is in mining, although in the last few years there's been development in oil and gas in Ghana, which has helped to bring the rental market on. In oil, gas, and mining operations it's expensive to lose production for any length of time, so reliable equipment is required.