Hewden Crane Hire of the UK has had a relatively low profile since its 2001 acquisition by Caterpillar distributor Finning International, and a change of management. But all that seems about to change. Last month, along with Hewden Instant Access, Hewden Crane Hire held an open day – dubbed Elevation 04 – for customers at its Castleford depot.
There was widespread expectation that Finning would divest itself of the crane business, seeing little added value to its Caterpillar business. Indeed, it did sell its tower crane fleet to concrete contractor PC Harrington. However, Finning has invested heavily in Hewden’s mobile crane business, with nearly £7m ($11m) this year for 25 new all terrains. Hewden Crane Hire, it seems, remains core to Hewden’s group operations, which range from tool hire and temporary accommodation to earthmovers and compacters.
The 25 cranes that were added this year were purchased as a single package from Terex Demag. That Hewden chose Demags comes as no surprise – it has long been Hewden’s supplier of choice and Demag cranes account for more than half the 256 machines in its fleet.
This year’s package comprised four 100t-capacity AC 100s, with an additional sixth axle (or tag axle) to allow the cranes to carry full 32t of counterweight; three 80t-capacity AC 80-2, with full-power 50m main boom; five 50t-capacity AC 50-1 (Hewden now has about 70 of these machines); ten 35t-capacity AC 35L, the French-built PPM machine with a five-section 37.4m main boom and maximum tip height of 47m; and three 30t-capacity AC 30 City cranes.
This shipment follows an £8m investment in 2003 on 32 Demag ATs, a 23-crane order placed with Demag in 2002 and 17 new Demag ATs in 2001. Add in cranes that Demag has sold to other parts of the Hewden group, Hewden Plant Hire and Hewden Services, and it comes close to 100 units that Demag has sold to this one customer since 2001.
The vigorous fleet renewal of recent years means that the average age of Hewden Crane Hire’s fleet has been brought down to just over five years old, according to national sales manager Jon Barrett. More than half are Demag models. Fleet size has been reduced by about 15% in the past couple of years and the company has quit the top-end of the heavy lifting sector (its heavy lifting division has 200t, 250t and 300t cranes; if a customer requires anything bigger, then Hewden will cross-hire). The result is that the company has become more profitable.
A key part of Hewden’s strategy is to promote the form of hire popular in the UK known as ‘contract lifting’ whereby the crane owner becomes a specialist lifting contractor, rather than just the equipment supplier. In a contract lift, the crane owner takes on more risk and provides the appointed person who is in charge of the lifting operation. As a result, Hewden can charge more and make a better profit. The proportion of work that it is doing under contract lift has risen rapidly in the past 12 months or so to more than 50%.
Hewden Crane Hire, like the other Hewden businesses, is focusing on service to major customers. Both this year and last year its top 50 customers account for 53% of its crane hire revenues, compared with 47% in each of the two previous years.
Despite the allegiance to Demag shown in previous years, general manager Martin Hender says that he started the purchasing process for this year’s order with an open mind. He only joined the company last year from outside the industry. Hender says that he consulted at length with Liebherr and Grove before selecting Demag.
Terex Demag proudly boasts that today it has more service technicians in the UK than its two biggest rivals combined – ‘the fastest, most responsive direct after-sales service’ – is how regional sales manager Mark Evans puts it. Neither Terex nor Demag have always had this reputation, but it is something that they have clearly strived to address. Having already sold more than 100 cranes in the UK this year, Terex Demag expects to claim a market share in the region of 50% at year-end, significantly ahead of Liebherr, with Grove and Faun trailing.
Demag’s relationship with Hewden goes deeper than simply supplying cranes and carrying out after-sales service and repairs. The manufacturer employs two fitters that work out of Hewden’s two London depots, in Heathrow to the west and Dartford to the east, carrying out all routine maintenance work on cranes of all brands. Terex Demag is in talks with other UK customers about expanding this total service concept.
