25.03.2004

GBK buys JD Crane Group

Vertikal.net has learned that JD Crane Group Ltd, the Peterhead-based crane hire company, which has been in administrative receivership since running into difficulties last year, has finally been sold to new crane rental company GBK Rental Services Ltd. The company was set-up specifically for the acquisiton of the JD Group and has beat off several high powered bidders for the company in the final stages prior to the sale.

The investors behind the GBK are Roger Quenby, previously with Hewden Stuart, and the Royal Bank of Scotland through West Register (Investments) Ltd, Other shareholders are named as Maurice McBride and Keith James Haig.

Deloitte Touche the company repsonsible for administering the JD sale declined to comment but denied that Roger Taylor a previous investor was involved in the new group.

JD Crane Group operated around 90 cranes spread across six depots in Scotland and the north of England. The company was also listed as the fourth largest crane hire company in the UK in the Cranes & Access magazine's 2003 “Top 20” survey with a fleet of 103 cranes at the time. The company’s largest crane was an 800 tonne Demag AC800, while it claimed a total employee count of 140 staff. Revenues for 2002 were £7.1 million, falling to £6 million in 2003.