How Street Crane’s family ownership, facility expansion and global sales strategy enable growth through volatility
Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, Street Crane Company Ltd (Street Crane) attributes its longevity and success to a combination of agility, innovation, and the ability to adapt to fluctuating market conditions. With headquarters situated in the picturesque Peak District, the UK-based company diversified 30 years ago in line with the manufacturing industry and now sells crane components worldwide to a global dealer network of 120 partners.
The third-generation limited company was founded by Peter Street who, after leaving the RAF, decided to apply his engineering skills to the crane sector. His son Martin followed in his footsteps, initially joining the finance team before becoming Street Crane’s active chairman. With Martin’s son William now acting as Finance Director, the family-owned business appointed Gus Zona as Managing Director, who first entered the business in 1988 as a Production Clerk. Manufacturing Today speaks with Gus to discover more about current challenges in the market and how Street Crane is overcoming opposition to expand into the US.
“We have an alpha beta strategy in the UK where we produce cranes for our own users here, alongside selling components to resellers and, in addition, we sell through a worldwide dealer network solely delivering components, rather than actual cranes,” begins Gus. “Peter recognized quite early on that there wouldn’t be much longevity in buying crane hoists to incorporate onto our products, as the hoist merchants can often change strategy – we needed our own tangible product to build a legacy from, which led the Street family to develop its own range of hoists and equipment 60 years ago.” Now in the fourth generation of product development, Street Crane has continually invested in these products, which Gus believes has helped keep the firm thriving and growing.
Street Crane prides itself on agility within an ever-changing market, and recent geopolitical volatility has required a rapid response. “In March 2025, I was in the US when the administration announced it would be imposing import tariffs,” reveals Gus. “This had the potential to derail our entire sales strategy, but situations like that are beyond my control and all we can do is figure out how to mitigate those risks.” The group has been working on expanding into the US market for 25 years. Gus elaborates: “I’ve travelled there about 50 times since I was employed by Street Crane in 1988. We were always trying to work out the possible barriers; US customers were impressed by the quality and the features of our products, but I think there was almost a stigma attached to buying from across the pond and concerns that an offshore company may just disappear.”
Tenacity paid off when Street Crane deployed localization and finished stock to its growth strategy. “Employing American people is the key factor that enabled us to overcome those barriers,” continues Gus. “We have 11 people on the ground now and we’ve established an organization called Street Crane Inc. with a facility in Charleston, which is relocating to a 30,000 square foot facility in Greenville this year. Storing finished stock in a warehouse, ready for next-day delivery, has helped us immensely, as shipping times from the UK could be sales prohibitive. Our sales in the US this year are probably 80 percent up on forecast, despite the administration and ongoing tariff uncertainty.” Currently shipping all goods from the UK, Street Crane’s intention is to begin configuring products in the US facility to conquer the supply chain and shipping constraints.
In conjunction with US facility upgrades, digital infrastructure differentiates Street Crane from rival companies. It has applied crane configurators and customer portals, for instance, enabling better customer experience and empowering self-sufficiency. “We typically work nine-to-five in the UK, but our US customers work in a different time zone, so we had to put systems in place to service their needs when we’re not here,” Gus shares. “The configurator functions similarly to automotive websites – for example, when configuring a new car online, you enter parameters and it gives you a proposal with the price and delivery status. Once you click ‘Buy Now’, the website connects to a parts portal. Applying this to Street Crane, if a customer has an existing product, they simply enter the serial number in order to find out which parts are available.”
Another challenge faced by the company is competition with large multinational businesses. “These organizations turnover billions of euros every year and we must find ways to compete against them,” Gus states. For Street Crane, innovation provides differentiation when financial resources aren’t as viable, combined with relationship building. “Our priority is finding innovative ways to sell our products while concentrating on the way we go to market – we still see ourselves as a family organization that values partnerships, rather than operating on a transactional basis solely focused on making money and ticking boxes. We strive to build the business on solid relationships, trust, and developing the friendships we’ve had for many years, which gives us the durability we possess today.”
Family ownership allows for connection with similar partners, several of which have been in collaboration with Street Crane for 25-to-30 years, and these working relationships have been built on the ethos of family orientation. “Many of the partners are privately-owned organizations and they are of a similar nature to ourselves,” Gus reflects. “We have aligning values and principles, alongside the ability to adapt our go-to-market strategies, depending on the customer. That family ownership allows me, as Managing Director, to adapt to market needs in the ways I believe are best for the future of Street Crane.
“Being a privately-owned firm means we don’t have to wait months for corporate board decisions,” he continues. “I feel very fortunate in that I have the autonomy to make those decisions day-to-day, week-to-week, and we can pivot and adapt very efficiently. Everything we have achieved in the US is the first staging post of what Street Crane will accomplish next over the next ten years. We feel we can replicate this progression in other locations around the world, with a plan to enter Europe next, followed by the Middle East.”
Championing internal promotion
After joining Street Crane in the late 1980s and advancing to his current role, Gus embodies internal promotion as an important element of the business. “Over 80 of our employees have completed more than 25 years of service,” he highlights. “In fact, one of our staff members has just reached their 50-year milestone, and we’re very proud of that retention. Furthermore, there’s no training university for the crane industry, therefore we invest heavily in apprenticeships – fabrication, machining and electrical engineering. We’re based in the Peak District which isn’t the obvious place to build an international crane factory, yet there is plenty of opportunity for development within the company, and we have incredibly skilled and experienced employees.”
Throughout 2026, Street Crane’s priorities center on product launches and its new site in Greenville. “First and foremost, we want to deliver this year’s product launches, making sure we showcase them in the best possible way,” discloses Gus. “We’re moving into our new facility in Greenville, and the idea is to get settled in before hosting an open event in the summer.”
The company’s long-term vision, on the other hand, emphasizes quality over scale. “Our goal is continuous improvement – not by becoming the biggest, but by being the best at what we do,” Gus concludes. “We choose the partnerships that best represent Street Crane. To some extent, that strategy limits how much product we sell, but it’s important we sell to the right partners. We want to be pioneers in the way we go to market. In this age of social media and AI, a lot of real human connections have been lost, and having this relationship with our customers is integral to Street Crane’s success.”
For a crane manufacturer competing against billion-euro corporations from a rural Peak District factory, Street Crane’s 80-year heritage substantiates its progressive approach and refreshing outlook of ‘real people dealing with real people.’
