The former Taylor Crane operation based Scotland has another new owner following the demise of the short-lived JD Crane Group.
As of 18 March, the company is now trading as GBK Rental Services and is managed by former Hewden Stuart director Roger Quemby. The company has about 85 mobile cranes out of depots in Newcastle, Aberdeen, Peterhead, Dundee, Newcastle and Liverpool.
JD Crane, owned by Maurice Johnson and Richard Dean, was established in March 2003 after Johnson and Dean bought the Taylor Crane business from Roger Taylor in November 2002. The business failed in March 2004.
It is not clear who is behind GBK and there is speculation in the industry about the origins of the name GBK, with some wondering if the K stands for Kranen, the German word for cranes. Despite repeated efforts on the part of Cranes Today, Quemby was unavilable for comment. But Cranes Today understands that Quemby has at least partial ownership of the company, together with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
