06.06.2025

Thomas Renwick 1936-2025

We have received the sad news that UK crane and access pioneer and veteran Tom Renwick has died.

He passed away on May 25th following a long period of ill health, at the age of 87 - he would have been 88 this month. He leaves behind son Alan and daughter Beth, having lost his wife Betty a few years ago.

Tom Renwick spent most of his life in the construction equipment industry having started out in 1958 as a mechanical engineering draughtsman apprentice with Colvilles of Motherwell, with a focus on the erection and commissioning of a steelworks at Ravenscraig.

His entry into the construction equipment industry kicked off in 1964, when he joined Reekie Plant in Glasgow as an area sales representative selling Komatsu machines.

In 1967 he got his first taste of the rental market with J. Bowen & Sons of Glasgow where he was appointed plant hire representative, taking up a similar role three years later with Rowan & Boden Plant Hire in Renfrew, before joining Motherwell Bridge Plant Hire as plant hire manager in 1971.

Over the next few years, he moved up through the ranks to director and then managing director. It was during this period that he played a key role in kicking off the self-propelled aerial lift market in the UK.

In February 1975, and by now a director of Motherwell Bridge Plant, he travelled to the USA to attend what was still widely known as the ‘Chicago Road Show’, but officially the International Construction Equipment Exposition, becoming Conexpo when it moved to Houston in 1981 and Las Vegas in 1987. The main purpose of the trip, was to look at cranes following an invitation to join a trip organised by one of the US crane manufacturers. However, while at the show he wandered through the lesser visited back halls where he spotted a small stand, for a company that he had never heard of, called JLG.

What attracted his attention was a 40ft boom lift - the JLG 40F. Manning the young company’s stand was chief executive John Grove. Renwick agreed to buy five units of a diesel powered model which became the 40FDR, and was offered the distribution rights. When he got home he had a call from Paul Adorian of EPL who had agreed the same deal with one of Grove’s colleagues. The two men recall what happened differently.

Speaking of the JLG deal a year or two ago, Renwick said “When the first machines arrived with us, John Grove arranged for an HSE inspection so that the new machines had some form of official approval. I recall collecting the two inspectors from Inverness airport and taking them to our yard in Evanton. The first thing they did not like about the booms was the fact that the gate was not self-closing, so we agreed to add a spring to it. Then when we did the overload test, the machine tipped - not an overturn, it just leaned forward as the back wheel lifted off the ground. When they asked what we were going to do about it we agreed to contact JLG and find a solution - probably more counterweight? Which we did.”

He said that he sold the first JLG booms to the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, an aluminium plant in North Wales, while Hewden Stuart took two and the fifth went into the Motherwell Bridge rental fleet.

That rental unit went to work at an offshore rig construction company, blasting topsides. When recalling the deal he said: “It replaced an 18 tonne Grove Rough Terrain crane with a basket, which tied up the high cost crane and its operator, while not providing the best solution for the blast crew. So, the swich to the JLG boom made sound economic sense as well as being safer. The company was delighted with the demonstration we organised, so when they asked for a rate, I quoted them £300/week which they jumped at. The list price of the machine at that time was £12,000, but we had a 25 percent dealer discount and then on top of that you could claim a 20 percent investment grant, reducing the effective cost to £7,000 - Happy Days!”

Motherwell Bridge was also a dealer for Acklift truck mounted lifts, and he claims to have sold the very first truck mounted lift over 30 metres to arrive in Scotland - a 31.3 metre model. Adding: “There is much more to tell, but I was very fortunate to have come into the industry at a time when we seemed to be constantly trailblazing.”

He left Motherwell Bridge in 1985 and for a year worked at Ingersoll Rand Sales as distribution manager for Scotland, before deciding to buy his local pub, the Craignethan in Lesmahagow, which he ran with his wife Betty, and their teenage children Alan and Beth for the next five years.

The pull of the equipment industry remained with him, and in 1991 he joined the Genie and Niftylift dealer William Laird as managing director, a role he held for the next 11 years, retiring in 2002.

However, as a member of the Contractors Mechanical Plant Engineers (CMPE) association for most of his career, he agreed to become vice chairman and secretary in 2004 and chairman the following year.

He said that he had been lucky to have led a fascinating and varied life, travelling the world to exhibitions and conventions in Chicago and Seattle as well as Iceland, and Germany to name just a few.

Tom Renwick was true character and always one to speak his mind, while forthright and 'not one to suffer fools gladly' he was genuine, straight forward and like things to be correct. Even long after he retired when he would call or write to us to suggest we deal with an issue or correct an inaccuracy he had come across or heard from others. We will miss his calls and suggestions.

His funeral will take place at 13.00, on Friday, 13th June at South Lanarkshire Crematorium in Blantyre.