Sarens UK

Source: Construction Digital

Date :19/02/2008 09:35:37

With many cranes available for hire as well as highly trained crane operators, Sarens UK is looking to make investments of £8,000,000. Exec finds out more

Written by Lucy Mowatt and produced by Kiron Chavda

Established more than 30 years ago, Sarens UK Ltd was formally known as JD White and later Grayston-White and Sparrow, developing a reputation for being one of the largest crane hire companies and heavy lift companies in Europe. Eleven years ago the Heavy Cranes & Contract Lift Division was taken over by Sarens. The subsidiary company is largely left to its own devices, relaying on its own expertise, which the UK project manager Paul Weston says is “very healthy and very trusting,” and allows the company to focus on making profit.

Sarens is a family owned group, with operations all over the world, and its headquarters are based in Belgium. The company has passed through father and son and is now in the hands of five Sarens family members who are grandsons of the founders. This company has offered Sarens UK the opportunity to increase its portfolio and client base, while also increasing the number of cranes it owns. Paul Weston says: “We’ve gone from four cranes (with Grayston-White & Sparrow) to 18 which shows the optimistic view of the future cranes all over the world,” emphasising the positive effect that the takeover has had and the groups focus on ploughing profits into investing into the business.

Indeed, there have been advantages for both parties. The UK unit recently completed a three year project in Kazakhstan, which is Sarens’ biggest contract to date. The company also gained a contract for Foster Wheeler in New Caledonia, an island between Australia and New Zealand. This required a different type of crane, so Sarens NV, the parent group, undertook the running of the project. By acquiring the expertise of the UK-based company, the group has gained two large projects and raised its profile.

Employee Retention

Sarens has also gained a loyal workforce. “I’ve been here 33 years and the managing director is also in his 33rd year. We virtually started together at JD Whites,” says Weston. Other staff have worked for the company for over 40 years. “We look after our people and they look after us,” he explains, saying that the company encourages the training of its staff. There are 64 people based at the Middlesbrough site.

“You have to be 21 years old to drive a crane but we take on younger people than that to work in our yard, loading equipment, learning about slings, shackles and cranes and when they are old enough, if they want to, we’ll send them out on a rigger course or to learn to become a crane operator,” Paul Weston elaborates. He says that this means employees become qualified to operate even larger vehicles as they gain more experience.

Handling heavy loads is of course, fraught with potential difficulties and accidents. As such, health and safety is a high priority in everyday operations. “We’re doing thousands of lifts everyday and everyone has the potential to go wrong, so the emphasis is on training and safety,” the UK Project Manager asserts. The company has strict guidelines in place which include double checking, risk analysis and rigging drawings for all the particularly heavy lifts. It also liaises with external companies so that all legislation is adhered to and guidelines are followed.

Mr Weston is pleased to explain that the company has a “safety record that is second to none”.

Competitive Edge

The group’s largest project to date, carried out by the UK operation, was for PFD in Kazakhstan. As part of a three year project, PFD used Sarens’ cranes to construct a refinery for Chevron Oil. Its largest crane, a Demag PC9600 was used to build the facility. This cranes’ capacity is 2000 tonnes and it had to be transported by train owing to freezing conditions in the winter; 100 wagons were used to ensure that the crane reached Kazakhstan in time. This was in addition to other cranes, upwards of 500 tonnes capacity.

The smallest crane that the company operates for hire is a 500 tonne Telescopic vehicle, although 100 tonne cranes are used by the company exclusively to rig the larger cranes. Sarens UK is, in terms of heavy cranes, the largest company of its kind in the UK. Paul Weston says: “If you’ve got a big lift to do and you don’t talk to us, you are missing the opportunity of dealing with the number one heavy lift company. We are in a very competitive market, with companies offering similar equipment but they do not have the same experience and safety record as we do at Sarens.”

Self-propelled modular trailers (SPMT) are also owned by the company and require operators to undergo specialist training. Paul Weston explains that the operator does not enter the vehicle, but that is operated by handset, which is connected by an umbilical wire. This equipment, when coupled with other units, is capable of moving up to 14,000 tonnes and is used in applications where trucks would be insufficient or incapable of fulfilling a task.

Opportunities for Growth

Paul Weston explains that there will be few problems getting new business going forward too. The main focus of the company’s work is for the petrochemical industry, which it believes will continue to provide potential for growth.

“We know that oil isn’t running out, whatever people say; there are still barrels of oil under the ground in the North East, Middle and Far East etc. and companies want access to that. This means building refineries, stations and offshore facilities,” he says. Not only that, he points towards a growing interest in nuclear energy in the UK and plans to start looking at building new plants.

Many plants, in an effort to minimise their impact on the environment, are also installing desulphurisation plants. These involve significant construction works and the use of heavy lifting equipment, such as cranes. The company currently has three cranes in Ferry Bridge; three cranes in Liverpool and another three in the Republic of Ireland in order to carry out these activities.

He also explains that there are increasing opportunities linked into bridge construction. “We are talking to bridge building companies and everybody’s work load is high because there are so many bridges to be built that no company could cope with it alone. There are bridge building companies all over the country and we have worked well with them all.” Bridges are being built to improve infrastructure for the 2012 Olympics in London, many railway bridges are also beginning to age and need to be replaced, meaning that the future is looking good for Sarens UK.

Click here to read the corporate brochure on Sarens UK