Barnhart turns 50
4 November 2019Barnhart Crane and Rigging, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Launched by Dick and Nancy Barnhart in 1969 as Barnhart Construction Company, Barnhart’s “corporate headquarters” consisted of two bedrooms in the couple’s Memphis home. While they soon hired employees, Dick and Nancy made the company a family affair from the beginning, and Barnhart CEO Alan Barnhart recalls his father taking Alan and his brother Eric to Pennsylvania as teenagers to inspect a crane the company was purchasing. By the time the brothers were in their mid-20s, they had taken on significant responsibilities in running the company. Alan and Eric Barnhart remain intimately involved with day-to-day operations.
Today the company offers operated crane rental, rigging services, outage planning, specialized solutions for component replacement, industrial storage and national project cargo logistics.
Barnhart has 53 branches located throughout the United States employing more than 1,500 people. The company has grown exponentially since its early days, through both organic expansion and through acquisitions. Barnhart has made 22 acquisitions since 1991, including three just in the last few months. It also boasts one of the largest engineering teams in the industry—including a full R&D department—driving innovation across all services.
