Safety, innovation, and investment have shaped the last 12 months for Ainscough Crane Hire
As the market leader for lifting solutions and services to the infrastructure, construction, power generation, and industrial markets, Ainscough Crane Hire (Ainscough) strives to identify and provide the most effective lifting solution for every project’s requirements. When we last spoke with CEO Peter Gibbs in late 2024, he shared details about the company’s diverse fleet of nearly 400 mobile cranes. We catch up with Peter to hear about the development of Ainscough over the last 12 months.
“The environment in which we operate has evolved significantly in the last nine-to-12 months. When we last spoke, the UK Government had just changed, there was significant negative press around the public sector black hole impacting investor confidence and the subsequent Budget had a significant impact on UK business costs. The ability to pass on the costs associated with National Insurance increases and other legislative changes has been challenging and further impacted by macro-economic uncertainty leading to a significant construction sector slow down. In the UK, there’s a gap between current live mega projects and new projects kicking off, and that combined with current uncertainty has a knock-on effect on our customers with order lead times becoming shorter and volume demand for our services declined.
“However, while this year has been a challenging one for the construction industry, it has been a positive one for Ainscough. As we’ve learned from the pandemic, we must change our perspective on challenges, viewing disruption as an opportunity for change. We were already on a journey of transformation, but we’ve tasked ourselves to think and operate differently over the last year. We’ve moved significantly from a crane hire model to a much more high value service solutions-oriented model where we get involved with customers much earlier to help them select the right solution for their project, and help drive productivity through the lifting activity.
“As part of this end-to-end solution, and to meet increased demand for modular solutions, we’ve recently invested around £7 million in a new 700-tonne crawler crane,” he adds. “It’s the biggest crane we currently have in our fleet and it’s a key piece of equipment that is constantly in use. The crane has just returned from a job in Stockport, for instance, where the site had to be accessed from some distance, with heavy loads lifted over constrained areas, and the 700-tonne crane is perfect for this type of application. It has now left for another project down on Hinckley, where its heavy lift capacity is being used to move large critical equipment for the cooling system.”
Date-driven efficiency
When we spoke with Peter in 2024, he explained that Ainscough had implemented a new technology system across the business in 2019. “We’ve been on a learning journey ever since we moved to the new system,” he reflects. “As a data rich company, we’re now better using that data to drive change at pace and continuously improve our operation. The first key area impacted by data is safety. Historically, our safety reporting was done in retrospect, but we can now engage with live data, which enables us to drive consistent behaviour and resolve queries or issues much quicker. We conduct weekly meetings with our teams to ensure rigour, and by doing this, we raise awareness and ingrain best practice into the daily routine and behaviour of our operators.
“Alongside the above benefits, we are seeing our live data drive significantly improved operational efficiency, and can share data with customers,” Peter adds. “As mobile crane usage is a core construction activity, our customers can then use this interactive data to measure carbon usage and productivity.”
Innovative safety system
One of Ainscough’s key achievements over the last year is winning ‘Company Innovation of the Year’ for its ‘Ready for Work’ pre-use check system; a simple safety process and digital-first innovation that has redefined safety standards across the lifting industry. “We’re delighted to have received this award and be recognised for developing this safety innovation, especially as medium-sized player,” Peter shares. “This product stemmed from an incident where an operator was lifting a large section of a wind turbine, which broke and fell to the ground. Thankfully no one was injured but on investigation, we identified a single point of failure, we took accountability of the risk and embarked on a mission to find a practical solution to enhance the safety of our operations.”
Taking inspiration from his aviation career, Peter developed the innovative ‘Ready for Work’ system. “This is a simple additional pre-lift safety check requiring operators to pause, check the crane, load, area, and engage with the lift team,” he elaborates. “It’s a crucial and practical addition to our offering and it’s already live across the mobile crane sector, with plans in place for it to become a British standard.”
Supporting infrastructure
With a commitment to innovation and safety, Ainscough is leading the way for safe mobile crane operations. Thinking about the future, Peter shares the challenges he’s currently facing as we head towards 2026. “We’re working with several organisations to clarify the regulation around the transportation of mobile cranes, currently drivers are increasingly being stopped by police or highways officials, which causes delays on site,” he explains. “We welcome this where it helps drives compliance with safety standards, but must create alignment supported by authorities, industry players, and customers, to ensure consistency, level the playing field and minimise disruption.
“In terms of geography, there is more focus in the South at present where there are several projects underway, particularly Hinckley, HS2 and now Sizewell C. Sizewell C will have unique problems in that access is restricted and the project is aiming to be delivered as environmentally sustainably as possible. Specifically, visitors must access the site through village roads, and the project is constrained on the number of large vehicles entering and leaving the site per day. There’s also a wider focus on the Cambridge area, particularly in the growing data centre market, and the rail corridor between Oxford and Cambridge showing signs of private investment over the coming years. This is driving focus on project efficiency as well as sustainability, lending itself to the competency and training of our people and data driven visibility we can give our customers.”
Peter concludes: “Overall, we’re focused on ensuring we have the right people, the right equipment, and the right support to position ourselves in the best possible place to support next year’s infrastructure demand and continue to drive industry-wide change in 2026 and beyond.”
www.ainscough.co.uk