Gleason Cranes, one of the world’s biggest names in crane distribution and rental, is shutting down after 50 years in business.
With a debt structure that became unmanageable, the US company opted to just close down rather than file for bankruptcy protection. Employees have all been let go while Bob Gleason and his son-in-law Phil Rice wrap up the business.
Gleason has been a leading distributor for Grove for more than 30 years. Grove has now taken the spare parts out of the inventory and moved them to North Central Crane, the Manitowoc company store in Chicago.
Bob Hixon, Grove vice president for north American crane sales, said that no decision had yet been taken on whether North Central would be given the Grove distributorship.
Hixon said that Grove had not had to take back any cranes as these belonged to finance companies.
As well as being a Grove distributor, over the course of its history, Gleason has been the number one worldwide distributor for P&H, Clark Austin-Western, Clark Lima and Sargent. In one year during the late 1970s the company sold more than 600 hydraulic cranes.
Bob Gleason himself is widely considered to be an industry legend. A full assessment of Bob Gleason’s massive contribution to the mobile crane industry will be published inn the MARCH issue of Cranes Today.
