IN FOCUS / GROVE CRANES
ON THE FLY AND HIGH WITH GROVE Victorian crane hire business McKay United has a long-standing relationship with Grove all terrain cranes and recently added new models to its fleet. The new models include a 250t class GMK5250L and the 400t GMK 6400. Cranes and Lifting explains. THE HERITAGE OF Mckay United dates back to 1987 when Gilbert McKay founded Williamstown Crane Hire in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Managing director, Tom Smith, joined the organisation in 2001. “We were the typical suburban crane company. We were very much a supplier to the manufacturing and industrial sectors in Melbourne, which were predominantly situated on the western side of the city. Clients included the ports, factories and petrochemical companies. “Whether it was the motor industry or the big chemical players, over time and as a result of international competition these companies moved on and the factories have gone. We still supply some of the Tier One industrial sectors on that side of town, but we needed to expand and get into other markets because our traditional client base was naturally declining,” Smith said. Williamstown acquired Geelong-based, Eastside Crane Hire in 2007, and in 2010 it had some surplus equipment that was moved to Hobart. According to Smith, previously there was an old company called Elliott’s Crane Hire, which had decided to exit the crane hire market after the global financial crisis. McKay United jumped in with one of their employees and continued on with that business utilising some of their excess equipment from the Melbourne operation. “Today, we have three depots, Melbourne, Geelong and Hobart and four or five years ago, we rebranded the businesses McKay United to enable us to trade under the one parent company. The name McKay United came from the original founder and also the uniting of the three entities,” he said. McKay United’s customer profile is orientated towards Tier One companies www.cranesandlifting.com.au
MegaDrive provides the GMK6400 with traditional and hydrostatic drive capabilities.
across all industry sectors, said Smith. “Whichever industry sector we are in, we target Tier One organisations. Exxon Mobil is an example of a Tier One petrochemical company that we supply to and we also supply to Tier One ports and services companies and Tier One civil construction company such as Lend Lease. Whether it be in construction, industrial, ports, petrochemical, or whatever industry it is, we resonate towards those bluechip customers. “We really don’t have a lot of customers at the smaller end. Put plainly and simply, you can’t put in place the health and safety regimes you need to supply Tier One businesses and then drive out of the yard tomorrow and supply a builder who wants you to do pretty much anything,” Smith said. The Grove 450t is the largest hydraulic mobile in the McKay fleet along with Demag 350t Super Lift crawlers, which
are all based in Melbourne. There’s a step down in capacity to the smaller city cranes including the 13t Kato, which is their smallest machine in Melbourne. Then there are all terrains and Frannas in between. McKay is running approximately 30 cranes out of Melbourne, another eight from Geelong and 12 out of Hobart. The largest crane in the Hobart fleet is a 220t hydraulic mobile and then a full range down to a 12t city crane. Smith explains the ups and downs of the long-standing relationship with Grove.The relationship with Grove started back in 2000 when they took delivery of the first Australasian GMK5100, Grove’s five axle 100t all-terrain which had a very strong lifting chart, Smith describes it as almost like a 120t machine at some points on the chart. They put that into their fleet in 2000 and followed it with a GMK4075. Both of those cranes are still in the Hobart fleet. March 2020 CAL / 55
