Boom truck manufacturer Pioneer has been bought by The Manitowoc Company from Mega Manufacturing. The sum paid was not disclosed.
Mega’s ownership of Pioneer has proved short-lived: it only bought the company a year ago from founder Ray Pitman Snr, the man regarded as the father of the boom truck, having founded Pitman Engineering in 1950 and RO Corporation in 1964 and Pioneer Engineering in 1993 (Pitman’s Pioneer joins Mega Manufacturing Feb99, p11). Mega was previously a manufacturing supplier to Pioneer.
The acquisition by Manitowoc follows its purchase of USTC in September 1998. There has been little sign, to date, of USTC being joined with Manitowoc’s original boom truck subsidiary, Manitex.
The combination of Manitex, USTC and Pioneer is likely to challenge Terex’s market position, but is still likely to be behind market leader National Crane, which claims a 45% market share and is set for its ninth consecutive year of record growth this year, with sales forecasted to rise by at least 5%.
Manitex general manager Joe Conway, to whom the managers of USTC and now Pioneer report, said that his group was now “very, very close” to first place in the boom truck market, but was not prepared to put a percentage figure on it.
He added that the Pioneer and USTC company names would be kept. “The names of the companies have a place in the market,” he said.
He also said that further acquisitions were being looked at.
