Kerry Hawley, general manager, says, “We’re running around 100 cranes: about 30 mobile cranes and 70 tower cranes. We’ve been the sole distributor for FM Gru in North America for the last four yours. We started bringing in their self erecting tower, and now we’re importing their 65m jib tower cranes.”
He continues, “We’re concentrating on the 2,500kg at 60m model, the TCK 2560. We’re looking to offer a top-of-the-line tower crane to the North American market. These are used for general construction and high-rise developments. We rent, lease, and sell the cranes. Typically, these are bare rental packages, but we offer technical support for installation and erection, and for maintenance.”
Mega Cranes has supplied three TCK 2560 to the biggest jobsite in Vancouver.
For Hawley, the advantages of working with a leading tower crane manufacturer are clear. “We chose to work with FM Gru as they are a substantial tower crane manufacturer, one of the top three in the world. Their standards are very high. Also, all their parts are standardised. Some smaller manufacturers seem to use one type of winch one year, then get a different deal and use a different part the next year. And, of course, the pricing was right.” The company points out that standardised parts also mean lower operation costs for the end user, benefiting both Mega Cranes and their customers.
The company is looking to continue to build its business. Hawley says, “We’re supplying these cranes all over the US and Canada. We’ve got a depot in Alberta with around 20 tower cranes, and another in Arizona. We’re looking to hook up with a dealer in the southern US to improve our distribution there, but expanding there ourselves is not out of the question.”
The company’s move into tower crane distribution hasn’t changed its commitment to its mobile business. Hawley says, “We’ll always be in mobile cranes, it complements the tower crane business, but we’re concentrating on our expansion of the tower crane side of the business.”
