It has become a cliché for western Europe and the USA to bemoan the loss of another manufacturing institution. Morris Material Handling has been manufacturing in one form or another since 1884. At the very best it will be rationalised with Konecranes UK’s Scotland facility.
Morris’s new crane manufacturing business is probably the victim of globalisation. KCI seems to have decided to cut manufacturing costs to the bone by making relatively few products (for its size). Its worldwide (ie Chinese) sourcing and worldwide selling are on an altogether different scale of operations than Morris.
But Morris is still a UK industrial success story. After KCI Konecranes bought the first UK service network – then called Lloyds British in 1991 – Morris built up its own service network from scratch.
Now those maintenance contracts and maintenance technicians are so desirable that KCI Konecranes has bought it again.
Even if hoists are now too cheap to be made profitably anywhere but China, they still need to be looked after.
The purchase is even more impressive because Morris only built up its service network in 15 years.
