HTC Plant buys Kier cranes

UK tower crane specialist HTC Plant Limited has acquired the crane assets of Kier Plant for an undisclosed sum.

The acquired fleet includes 39 tower cranes, four crawler cranes and four rough terrain cranes. The tower cranes are a mix of Liebherr and Potain with an average age of six years, Duncan Salt, HTC director and general manager, told IC. Utilisation at the time of acquisition was around 60% and all of them will be out on rental by the end of 2013, Salt said.

The crawler fleet is two 70 tonne capacity Sumitomos, an 80 tonne Kobelco and a 120 tonne Sumitomo. All are lattice boom models and have an average age of three years. The 35 and 55 tonne capacity rough terrains are from Kato and average three years old.

The majority of staff will transfer to HTC under the UK’s Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations also known as TUPE. Operation will continue out of the Setchey depot in the short term but the business will be fully integrated into the HTC business, Salt said.

The reason given for the 5 August sale was that Kier wants to focus on its core business.