New man in the driving seat

In June, Ainscough Crane Hire appointed Peter Gibbs as chief executive, two months after he had stepped in as interim chief executive after the sudden departure of Jeremy Fry. Fry had lasted barely a year in the position after taking over from Janet Entwistle who also left at very short notice.

With six months as head of the UK’s leading crane rental company and 27 months experience of the crane industry under his belt, Gibbs spoke with publisher Leigh Sparrow about how things were panning out.

It has been 13 years since the Ainscough brothers sold their business to an MBO led by financial director Neil Partridge, and eight years since the company was acquired by Goldman Sachs. Oaktree Capital then took over and Ainscough’s majority investor is now GSO Capital Partners, a part of Blackstone.

Seven years of private equity ownership have not been particularly good for Ainscough - a period dogged by changes in senior management, some of whom seemed oblivious to the fact that crane hire is a people business. That led to a series of ugly disputes with crane operators and ongoing rumours of ownership changes.

Listening to Gibbs, it is hard not to feel that at least difficulties such as these could now be behind it, and that it might be on the threshold of a golden age – something the company hasn’t experienced for at least 15 years. While the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a spanner into the works, it may have provided a welcome reset button, giving Gibbs time to make further changes while demonstrating his new approach.

Not yet a crane man

Gibbs started the job with similar disadvantages to his three predecessors - at least in some employees minds - in that he was not a ‘crane man’. He did though have the advantage of 18 years with the British Army, often in ‘hands on’ roles, including a decade flying helicopters. The fact that he isn’t a career accountant, a ‘bean counter’, may also have been in his favour.