To make up for the gap between the close of Cranes and the launch of Cranes Today, the first issue welcomed returning readers with a column headed What’s been going on since? Readers learned of a new Scottish plant hire firm, Caledonia Crane and Plant Hire, backed by Richards and Wallington.
In Oxford, John Allen & Sons, who had been making cranes and marketing Grove telescopic cranes under licence for some years, were taken over by the American company. On the European mainland, Verenigde Machinfabrieken of Holland, and Krupp of Essen, reached agreement with Stork Jaffa to take over the sales and promotion of electro-hydraulic shipboard cranes built by Krupp’s Atlas-Werke subsidiary in Bremen.
Cranes Today had a busy travel schedule in the run up to the first issue. In France, Poclain showed the magazine around its crane factory. In Grangemouth, J D White showed off its Coles Colossus. Then, in Clevedon, the British Hoist & Crane Company invited the magazine to join potential buyers as they watched it put an Amethyst and a Cairngorms Iron Fairy through their paces. The magazine reported that, during the event, Mr H E Ashton, director of BHC, was called to the phone to accept an £18,500 order for one of the Cairngorms machines.
Marsh Plant operator Derek New had, the magazine said, been busy at the Southampton Boat Show, and ‘seemed glad enough to vacate his cab in favour of one of three bikini-clad boat show beauties’ attending the event from a local modelling agency.
