Changes at Ainscough Crane Hire

Ainscough Crane Hire's John Lowton is stepping up from manager to director of health and safety following the departure of Bryan Cronie, who is taking up a post with Al-Jabb in Singapore.

His departure follows a month after the former heavy cranes operations director Steve Hitchen left the company. Hitchin's responsibilities are being shared between operations director Peter Kernohan and Jim Fleming, the manager of the Preston depot, who becomes the heavy cranes depot manager.

In 2007, Ainscough underwent a £255m management buyout from the Ainscough family and is the UK's largest hirer of mobile cranes with a fleet of some 500 units between 10t and 1,000t capacity. The company recently expanded its offering with a move into the crawler crane hire sector, ordering six machines from Demag (500t to 1,250t) and a 600t unit from Liebherr.