Kobelco: Brown retires, Evans joins

After 50 years in the crane industry Andrew Brown has retired from his sales manager position at Kobelco Cranes Europe in the UK. Brown will continue as a consultant for a limited time. Mark Evans has joined the company and taken over sales responsibility.

Brown joined Kobelco in 2000 and was key in establishing the Kobelco brand in Europe and other parts of the world. “Andrew Brown is highly regarded and respected throughout the crane industry, both in the UK and many other parts of the world”, said Masayuki Kimura, Kobelco Cranes Europe managing director. “His lifetime experience as a dedicated crawler crane specialist has been invaluable in the successful introduction of Kobelco crawler cranes.”

Andrew Brown spent his whole career in the crane industry, having started as a student engineering apprentice at Ransomes and Rapier in Ipswich, UK, in 1961. He transferred to NCK-Rapier as a sales representative in the north of England. Product manager was next, when the Ajax, Eiger, Orion and Olympus cranes were developed. After that, in the role of export manager, he led the worldwide export drive to sell cranes and walking draglines, which helped earn the company its first Queen’s Award for Export. For several years Brown was project manager at Ruston-Bucyrus in Lincoln, initially responsible for offshore pedestal mounted marine cranes.

Reflecting on his 50 years in the industry, Brown said, “It is fascinating to look back, not just at the technical advances and performance of crawler cranes but, also, the changes among the manufacturers and their distribution networks. But for me personally, the most gratifying aspect has been the pleasure of dealing with the customers who are biggest-hearted individuals you could wish to meet – and I will miss all of that.”

One customer commented, “Andrew’s skill is that not only is he extremely well-informed but he also has an uncanny knack of anticipating exactly what customers need.”

Mark Evans, also has sound knowledge of the crane business, having been involved in crane sales and lifting operations for many years in the UK and in the Middle East, most recently at Terex and Wolff.