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History
A Jardine and Sons Ltd. was formed in 1965 to provide crane hire in the local Morecambe and Lancaster areas. Run by Andrew Jardine and employing his two sons Andrew and Fred, and his daughter Anne, the business grew steadily throughout the 1970’s and 80’s expanding its fleet as its reputation grew.
A major breakthrough for the company came when it gained business at the nuclear power station at Heysham, providing the impetus for investment in new cranes and improvements in working practices to meet the high demands of this safety conscious industry. During the 1990’s Jardines worked closely with British Energy, the owners of the Heysham Power Stations to develop safe working practices for all lifting operations and the procedures and policies developed and adopted at Heysham became standard practice on all British Energy nuclear sites.
In 2000 the company bought what was then its largest crane, a PPM ATT 900 with 80 tonne lifting capacity to service the expanding energy sector which was extracting natural gas from the fields in Morecambe Bay. As the impact of BS7121 - Safe Use of Cranes, became apparent Jardines expanded its services to provide a full Contract Lifting service.
In 2002 A Jardine and Sons Ltd. was purchased from the Jardine family by The Specialist Hire Group Ltd., a rapidly expanding business in crane hire and fork lift truck hire. Attracted by the high service levels and value added aspects of Contract Lifting, The Specialist Hire Group has invested heavily in new equipment and training to expand the company’s capabilities in this service, and is now able to provide training to other companies from its facilities in Lancaster and Manchester.
In March 2006 Jardine bought a small crane hire fleet formerly owned by Steelforce Bowmech, a Manchester based company in Administration. This gave Jardines an operating base in Trafford Park from which it can service customers in South Manchester, Cheshire, Liverpool and the Wirral.
From its small beginnings as a family run company, Jardines has earned its place in the top 10 crane hire companies in the UK (as measured by turnover) and is set to continue its expansion through offering the highest standards of service and safety.