Rumours surrounding future ownership of US company Barnhart Crane & Rigging are completely without foundation, Alan Barnhart has confirmed to ConnectingCranes. In fact, if anyone is doing the buying, it’s Barnhart.
Industry gossip had paired Barnhart off with Mammoet of the Netherlands. Many people in different parts of the industry across the USA, it seems, had heard that Mammoet was buying Barnhart.
When asked about this at the Specialised Carriers & Rigging Association’s crane and rigging workshop in Denver recently, Alan Barnhart laughed it off. He too had heard these stories but there was absolutely no truth to them, he said. There had not even been any discussions about joint ventures or cooperations and he did not know how or why the rumour had started, nor who had started it.
In fact Barnhart Crane & Rigging is the company making acquisitions this year. Back in February it took over the assets of C Reed Davis Contractors of Knoxville, Tennessee and last month it announced that it had bought Williams Crane & Rigging of Richmond, Virginia for an undisclosed sum.
Barnhart has taken the opportunity of a downturn in the market to further expand its operations by opening new project offices. In February it opened an office in Chicago and last month added one in Tampa, Florida, managed by John Mickler who joined the company last year.
These four new resources are in addition to existing facilities in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana and Arkansas. Williams (the name is to be retained) will offer heavy lift cranes, specialised transportation and engineered lifting throughout eastern USA, focusing particularly on the Mid-Atlantic states from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
Jeff Latture, vice president, heavy contracting for Barnhart, said of the latest acquisition: ‘Over the past 37 years Williams Crane & Rigging has built a reputation as an excellent company in the Richmond area and along the east coast.’
Jack Williams, director of operations at Williams Crane & Rigging, said: ‘Barnhart represents a tremendous asset to us in terms of equipment, personnel and engineering staff. Our customers will see and work with the same people they’ve known and trusted for years, but through our association with Barnhart Crane & Rigging, we now offer much more in the way of expanded equipment and services.’
The company has contracts for two major projects in the near future, including transporting and setting four gas turbines and four steam generators at the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative project in Louisa, Virginia and hauling and setting 67 components at the Fluvanna County, Virginia combined cycle combustion turbine plant.
