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Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, Street Crane Company Ltd( Street Crane) attributes its longevity and success to a combination of agility, innovation, and the ability to adapt to fluctuating market conditions. With headquarters situated in the picturesque Peak District, the UKbased company diversified 30 years ago in line with the manufacturing industry and now sells crane components worldwide to a global dealer network of 120 partners.
The third-generation limited company was founded by Peter Street who, after leaving the RAF, decided to apply his engineering skills to the crane sector. His son Martin followed in his footsteps, initially joining the finance team before becoming Street Crane’ s active chairman. With Martin’ s son William now acting as Finance Director, the family-owned business appointed Gus Zona as Managing Director, who first entered the business in 1988 as a Production Clerk. Manufacturing Today speaks with Gus to discover more about current challenges in the market and how Street Crane is overcoming opposition to expand into the US.
“ We have an alpha beta strategy in the UK where we produce cranes for our own users here, alongside selling components to resellers and, in addition, we sell through a worldwide dealer network solely delivering components, rather than actual cranes,” begins Gus.“ Peter recognized quite early on that there wouldn’ t be much longevity in buying crane hoists to incorporate onto our products, as the hoist merchants can often change strategy – we needed our own tangible product to build a legacy from, which led the Street family to develop its own range ▲ SH Parker & Sons, Bristol, 1962
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