Speedy Lifting has acquired the LGH sales and test and inspection branch network, LGH training, LGH engineering and LGH’s megalift industrial machinery moving operator together with all LGH facilities based on customer sites. However, the LGH winches, rigging services (entertainment) and suspended access operations have not been acquired as part of the transaction.
Speedy managing director Claudio Veritiero said: “We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of one of the most respected names in the lifting industry.”
He added: “Lifting Gear Hire has long been regarded as the leading brand within specialist lifting hire, especially in industrial markets. Over the past 35 years LGH has built a reputation for technical expertise and a full-service offering, which, combined with Speedy Lifting’s hire expertise, will enable us to fulfil customer requirements across a broader spectrum of industries with unrivalled UK coverage and equipment availability.”
Speedy said the acquisition will result in further strengthening its nationwide coverage, thus delivering a quicker and more efficient service to its customers. In addition, Speedy said it will now be able to offer its customers extra added value services such as test and inspection, bespoke lifting engineering and specific lifting related training.
Veritiero continued: “Speedy Lifting’s aim is to be the first choice in the supply of lifting and materials handling equipment in all its target market segments. The acquisition creates an undisputed leader in lifting services and places Speedy in a unique position, with regards to the service offering and end-user markets served.”
In the short term, the two businesses will run side by side as Speedy Lifting and Speedy LGH to ensure, as Veritiero put it, “that we can bring together the respective strengths of the two businesses in a way which benefits our diverse customer base.”
He added: “I am pleased to welcome all employees of Lifting Gear Hire. The knowledge and expertise of LGH’s people will further strengthen Speedy’s development in industrial market sectors, and I look forward to continued growth within the enlarged lifting business.”
Bill Parkinson, founder of LGH in 1970, commented: “LGH has gone as far as we can take it and I’m convinced Speedy can take it to a wider market than we were able to – and support it with broader investment and resources.”
He added: “This is a great deal for everyone concerned – not just the LGH shareholders and Speedy but also for Speedy LGH customers and employees. They will benefit from Speedy Hire’s ability to invest in people and in the safest and most modern equipment, and from its focus on delivering a level of service of such quality, depth and scope that is unrivalled in the UK lifting gear industry.”
Parkinson concluded: “We are pleased with the deal and look forward to focusing our time and resources to concentrate on the remaining Parkinson family businesses including LGH winches, our suspended access business, operations in Holland, Germany and the USA, together with Moorhouses Brewery and Standish Court Golf Club.”
