A related trend that is popular at the moment is for family firms to sell a portion of the business to investors in exchange for a bigger credit line to buy more cranes. I am thinking of Finland’s Havator and Northern Crane of Canada, to name a few.
Crane rental firms start, at least, as family businesses, and there are still a few big privately-held firms left in the industry. I’m thinking of Lampson and Barnhart in the USA, Sarens in Belgium and Pekkaniska in Finland.
Personally, I will miss the Ainscoughs, and their straight-talking Lancashire drawl. Founders give their companies unique leadership and direction, and when they go something special is lost. Look at Steve Jobs at Apple – the founder left the company in 1985, and by the mid-90s the company seemed to have lost its way. After his return in 1997, Apple released the iMac and its biggest hit to date, the iPod.
There are many great corporate crane rental companies. And I know that a business takes more than its leader. Many founders are entrepreneurs at heart, happy to delegate the operations side, the fulfillment of their promises, to trusted lieutenants. Also, many successful family businesses grow by absorbing other family companies, and their culture, people, and equipment, as Ainscough did with Grayston White Sparrow in the 90s, Baldwins five years later, and Crane Services in 2006. Even Cranes Today itself has changed hands several times.
But I am a little sad every time a family business sells out, because once parts of the company are sold, they never seem to come back together again.
That is why I will never tire of seeing cranes with the owner’s name painted on the side of the boom.
