THE INTERVIEW
CraneTech is a leading full-service American crane company with more than 30 locations across the US.
their families in the middle of the night for an emergency. But they do get to feel like the hero when they fix a crane that is down at a customer facility where everyone’s livelihood depends on it.
Personal life
For Eric, family always comes first, and he believes he and his colleagues are building an organisation that feels like family but demands the most out of each other, just like any high-performing team. Their approach is to work very hard and have a positive impact on the communities in which they operate. Even from a very young age, Eric always
wanted to be a CEO. He was the kid trying to sell pens door-to-door in kindergarten, and he feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to realise this dream, especially this early in his career.
40 Summer 2025 |
ochmagazine.com
Is there anything you dislike about this industry or any changes you would like to see implemented? I would like to see a bigger emphasis on safety and training. And we need to help improve our customers’ safety. This is why we invested in the North American Training Bureau, a leading national crane school from which we are developing further curriculum for our teams and customers. Safety and training are not at the level of prioritisation that they need to be. There has been some work on safety throughout the industry, but it should be priority number one. Right now it’s number two or three on the agenda. That is why we have made large investments in both. We have built a safety programme and a safety
culture from scratch. That is partly because when we talk to our people they are always asking for training. That is why we bought the training school and why we are building both a technical curriculum and a safety curriculum to support our technicians.
What makes your company unique? Our technician-first approach, and the culture we have built. We take our cultural values very seriously, and it was our technicians themselves who defined them. They are safety, teamwork, dependability and humility. Every year one technician in every branch is
voted by their peers to attend an all-expense paid retreat. It's a big reward and usually very fun – last year we took everyone night-vision hog hunting. But we also use it as another opportunity to get our technicians fingerprints on our fabric as a company.
What is your view on the future of the overhead cranes/lifting industry? The biggest trend is consolidation, and we think this is only going to increase over the next five years. We expect many of the larger businesses to start merging with each other, as larger and larger private equity groups start investing in the industry. Meanwhile, the winners will be the companies that stay laser-focused on their people and their technical talent. While we are acquisitive as well, it is the people that are our focus. We only acquire companies where it is clear that the owner's priority is truly their team. l
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