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Manitowoc Agrees to Acquire Crane Dealer, Rental Company and Truck Outfitter Aspen Equipment

Aug. 27, 2021
Crane manufacturer The Manitowoc Co. has agreed to acquire all the assets of Aspen Equipment Co., a diversified crane dealer and a final-stage, purpose-built work truck upfitter for approximately $51 million.

Crane manufacturer The Manitowoc Co. has agreed to acquire all the assets of Aspen Equipment Co., a diversified crane dealer and a final-stage, purpose-built work truck upfitter for approximately $51 million. The transaction is expected to close in September 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

The acquisition will expand Manitowoc’s direct-to-customer footprint in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota with new sales, used sales, parts, service and rentals to a variety of end markets. Aspen’s field support team provides technical competencies and customer support, and its specialized crane and truck equipment upfitting capabilities provide depth of product offerings to a wider base of customers including loyal Manitowoc customers.

“We are pleased to reach this mutually beneficial agreement with Aspen which will position Manitowoc closer to our end markets in the U.S. and complement our pending acquisition of H&E Equipment’s crane business,” said Aaron Ravenscroft, president and CEO of The Manitowoc Co. “Aspen is a well-established, proven dealer with great upfitting capabilities which will fit great with Manitowoc’s National Crane boom truck offering. We look forward to welcoming the Aspen team to the Manitowoc family. We expect this acquisition will be accretive to adjusted EBITDA in year one. Over the years, Aspen Equipment has developed numerous innovative lifting and final-configuration truck solutions for a variety of end customers. This customer-centric approach will provide Manitowoc a solid platform for growth.”

Manitowoc recently agreed to acquire H&E Equipment Services’ crane business, signaling more of a direct-to-end user approach including rental, sales and service.

Aspen Equipment, which has locations in Bloomington, Min.; Omaha, Neb.; Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa, sells and rents Grove mobile and Manitowoc crawler cranes, Elliot and National Crane boom trucks, loader cranes and mechanics trucks, Bronto Skylift truck-mounted boom trucks and a variety of air compressors.

About the Author

Michael Roth | Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.