As ports, freight terminals and companies involved in heavy industry applications invest to drive trade post-Brexit, increasing sales of Mantsinen hydraulic cranes and SANY heavy handling equipment are driving growth at Cooper Specialised Handling, which has seen turnover rise to more than £10 million.
The UK’s only independent provider of specialised heavy lifting equipment with a capacity of 6-70 tonnes, Cooper Specialised Handling is committed to working in partnership with its customers and some of the world’s top equipment manufacturers to deliver innovative solutions to the most complex handling challenges.
Turnover has increased to more than £10 million in the last 12 months enabling Cooper Specialised Handling to build its market share to approximately 60% in some sectors. There has also been some restructuring of the management team with Chris Barnes, who has been with the business for 13 years and heads up the sales function, promoted to Sales Director. Luke Maslin, who joined Cooper Specialised Handling in 2011, takes on the role of Operations Director with responsibility for planning engineering schedules and ensuring that all service and maintenance work is completed in accordance with customer requirements. He also manages direct parts sales.
In one of the biggest tenders of its type, Cooper Specialised Handling sealed a series of deals with Associated British Ports for five Mantsinen hydraulic cranes totalling £6 million and supplied a wheeled Mantsinen 160M at Belfast Harbour. Its achievements in helping to re-establish Mantsinen as a force to be reckoned with in the UK marketplace led to Cooper Specialised Handling being named as Mantsinen’s Dealer of the Year, after it emerged as the crane manufacturer’s most successful dealer globally since 2015.
Cooper Specialised Handling’s Chief Executive David Cooper said: “More and more businesses are coming to appreciate that the speed and handling precision delivered by Mantsinen’s award-winning crane technology equates to a highly cost-effective way of driving up productivity.
“This is a really exciting time to be involved with the Mantsinen brand, especially as there’s growing interest in the new 300 model, which supersedes the Mantsinen 200 as the world’s largest hydraulic crane and features the next generation HybriLift energy-saving technology.”
Meanwhile, since taking on the UK distributorship for SANY in 2015, Cooper Specialised Handling has established itself as one of the manufacturer’s most successful dealers in Europe, supplying high specification reachstackers and container handling equipment to major industry operators, including Goldstar Transport, Rail Freight Services and Maritime Transport.
As the Cooper Specialised Handling business develops, so demand for quality engineering services is fuelling growth at sister company Cooper Handling Solutions, which is dedicated to providing service, maintenance and spare parts to users of heavy lifting equipment.
Cooper Handling Solutions operates its own, directly employed engineering team and is currently recruiting three additional field service technicians as part of a 10-year strategic plan to develop a team of 25 highly skilled ‘big truck’ specialists.
