UK | MARKET REPORT
PARCEL DELIVERY HELPED BY HOIST UK
Delivery companies are a sector that has seen huge surges in demand throughout the pandemic. Cheshire-based Hoist UK designed and installed an articulated jib crane at an international parcel delivery provider; the request came, and the project was delivered and installed, at the height of the June 2020 lockdown. The customer needed to help its staff in transferring maintenance plant and tooling from the basement level to the ground floor through a roller shutter door; the only access before installation of the crane was by stairs. The structure of the building limited the options of mounting a crane, and as the jib would be used for infrequent maintenance operations they did not want anything that would obstruct the floor space. This ruled out a free-standing crane. Hoist UK’s engineers suggested an articulated jib crane with a unique two arm “knuckle” arrangement. This gave coverage of a much bigger working area than a conventional braced jib crane. The crane was supplied with a bracket that was mounted onto an existing vertical column in the corner of the room, which was crane is folded up against the wall. It has two 1.5m arm sections to give a 3m overall arm radius. ‘forearm’ gives an additional 300 degrees, which extends the arm out of the building, so trucks and trolleys can be unloaded. The jib has an electric chain hoist with dual lifting speeds for
increased control when transferring plant and equipment out of the basement.
some point you have to move forward. That point has now come: for us it seemed to coincide with the new year. Now people are playing catch-up: with regular customers and some new orders it is almost back to business as usual. Brexit does not seem to be having an effect; from my own experience and from talking to colleagues I don’t believe that engineering is going to be badly affected by Brexit. “And even during 2020 money was being spent and there were good contracts around. Among other projects we installed a jib crane at a water industry training facility, and a new lifting beam for baggage-handling at Manchester airport; another project was an underslung crane with a cantilevered bridge beam in a university clean-room, and just before lockdown a one-tonne jib crane in a granite and marble factory near Brighton. And there were private clients who were spending also. For a client in Cornwall we installed a lifting dance floor over a swimming pool in his new fitness suite extension.” Hamilton Pow-R-Safe Systems
manufacture conductor rail, C-track and catenary wire systems for the crane and
24 | February 2021 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
hoist industry. “Last year was as good as any, to be honest” says Ryan Jones, head of sales. “It was slow at first then it returned to normal again. So it was patchy, but not bad. Demand held up. We have our own conductor bar system, which was well sought-after, and we do complete systems as well. Manufacturing was not a problem either: we do all our manufacturing in-house but we have a large factory building that has plenty of space for social distancing at work. So we have not seen a big difference from the pandemic really.” And for some, the restrictions and changes brought about by the pandemic have turned out to be altogether beneficial. LGH, formerly Lifting Gear Hire, is a major company which has found the Covid and lock-down precautions it has had to adopt have actually led to improvements. Andy Mault is its CEO. The family-owned company has its roots in Manchester but now has centres in Europe and North America as well. Founded in 1970, LGH was preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary in style in March 2020 just as Covid struck. “So our celebrations were a little muted” says Mault.
“In those first few months projects were
delayed or cancelled. We had to furlough some staff, but by June things were picking up again and they were back at work. Now in January 2021 we are 60% behind where we should have been, but we are expecting to make that up by the end of the financial year. “Like everyone else we have had to
adjust to the new normal. Sales reps could not go to sites or have face to face meetings with clients; spontaneity, with informal and productive to-and-fro in conversation, got hit badly. But we made the necessary changes quickly. Our offices went over to home working. We got an online Teams video-call system set up. And we found, unexpectedly, that the changes actually improved our communications within the company. “We have bases all over the UK, from
Scotland to Cornwall, and the video calls let us all put faces to names that we just used to e-mail. It is the same with our European and US teams. We could get hold of our colleagues almost whenever we wanted them because they were working from home rather than out and unavailable at site meetings. Our workshops are large and well-ventilated, so with PPI and similar precautions staff there were able to get
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