Feb 19 2011
Essex Rental Corp. (Nasdaq: ESSX; ESSXW; ESSXU) ("Essex") today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Coast Crane Company (“Coast Crane”), has agreed to continue to serve as a new equipment dealer for certain Manitowoc products, consisting of Potain tower cranes, including the self-erecting and city hammerhead cranes, in the western US, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam.
Coast Crane will no longer serve as a distributor of new Manitowoc and Grove branded crawler and telescopic cranes, but will remain a National Key Account for all the Manitowoc Crane Group products which will allow Coast Crane to continue purchasing all new equipment for its rental fleet and parts directly from the manufacturer. This structure is similar to the successful relationship that has existed between Essex Crane and the Manitowoc Crane Group for more than fifteen years.
Besides the Potain tower crane lines, Coast Crane will continue to act as a new equipment dealer for several other manufacturers, including Tadano, Mantis, Little Giant, Manitex, Lull and other lines currently represented.
Ron Schad, President and CEO of Essex Rental Corp., stated, "We are pleased to continue representing certain Manitowoc products, and expect to add additional manufacturers’ product lines and territories in the near-term based on discussions that we have had to date. We consider our three core competencies to be new and used equipment distribution, a broad national offering of rental equipment, and service and parts support, and plan on aggressively building these primary business lines."
Mr. Schad continued, "Thus far, we are pleased with the Coast Crane acquisition. We recently completed a comprehensive appraisal of Coast Crane’s assets and they were valued consistent with our purchase price. Further, the acquisition has broadened our business prospects and we are excited by the many growth opportunities presenting themselves, as well as with Coast Crane’s exceptionally dedicated and knowledgeable employees. These growth opportunities combined with improving asset utilization across our entire rental fleet will allow us to generate attractive returns for our shareholders."
Source: http://www.essexcrane.com/