US crane rental company Bay Crane, has acquired the Mid-Atlantic crane operations of ML Holdings – namely United Crane & Rigging of Baltimore and Crane Rental Company, of Capitol Heights, Maryland - on the outskirts of Washington DC. The two ‘companies’ have operated under the United Crane brand for the past three years.
Between them they run a fleet of 88 cranes, with All Terrains up to 450 tonnes, Rough Terrains, crawlers up to 110 tonnes, as well as tower cranes, spider cranes and hoists, plus around 200 trucks, trailers and other support equipment. The two companies merged their operations in 2020, roughly 18 months after Crane Rental Co was acquired by ML Holding which has owned United for more than 10 years.
A United All Terrain crane in action
Bay Crane chief executive Kenneth Bernardo said: “Both these companies have over 50 years of proud history serving the Mid Atlantic market. We are pleased that they will be joining the Bay Crane Companies and welcome everyone on the team. The Mid Atlantic market is very strategic to Bay Crane, being located just south of our New Jersey operations. These platform businesses will help to expand Bay Crane as a premier crane service provider in the northeast corridor from New Hampshire to Virginia. The team at United Crane and Crane Rental will now have access to one of the largest and most comprehensive crane fleets on the east coast along with all the specialty rigging and trucking equipment. This will uniquely position Bay Crane to substantially increase the scope of services provided to customers in the Mid-Atlantic region.”
Joe Mirabile, Mid Atlantic vice president for ML who moves o Bay, added: “We are already seeing immediate benefits from this combination. We are moving larger crawler cranes and other high capacity and specialised equipment into the market and are very confident our loyal customers will see a significant benefit from this combination in the years ahead.”
David Matz- president of ML Crane and ML Holdings said: “When ML decided to focus its crane business exclusively in the Mid/Southwest markets we knew we needed to find the right buyer for United Crane and Rigging and Crane Rental Company. While we’re sad to part ways with all the great people at these companies, we can’t think of a better partnership for them than The Bay Crane Companies. We look forward to the continued success of the expanded Bay Crane and redeploying capital in our core businesses.”
Established in 1968, United Crane & Rigging is based in Baltimore, Maryland with a depot in Washington DC. The company runs a fleet of All Terrain, Rough Terrain and crawler cranes as well as tower cranes, truck cranes, boom trucks and hoists.
Established in 1937 Crane Rental Company, Inc was acquired by ML Holdings from Michael Scott in October 2018. The business was merged into United in 2020.
Bay Cranes was established in 1939 and already operates from 20 locations with a strong market leading position in both the New York and Chicago crane markets. It operates as Bay Crane in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts and as Capital City in Michigan, West Virginia and Ohio and Gatwood/Chellino Crane in Illinois.
Vertikal Comment
Bay Cranes has been expanding rapidly since 2022, acquiring a number of strong well run local or regional operations. In fact, it acquired ML Holdings’ Chillino Crane in Chicago with its 43 cranes and facility, only last year.
On the surface this looks like another good move strengthening its presence in the New York to Northern Virgina corridor.
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