Imperial Crane Services Acquires Joliet-based Speedway Crane

Imperial Crane Services has acquired Speedway Crane, based in Joliet, Ill., enabling Imperial, headquartered in Bridgeview, Ill., with branches in Indiana and Texas, to accelerate its expansion into the Joliet, Ill., corridor.
Dec. 8, 2015
2 min read

Imperial Crane Services has acquired Speedway Crane, based in Joliet, Ill., enabling Imperial, headquartered in Bridgeview, Ill., with branches in Indiana and Texas, to accelerate its expansion into the Joliet, Ill., corridor.

Speedway Crane was founded in 2002 by Mike Fitzgerald and has built a strong crane rental customer base within the steel industry and other manufacturing facilities. Speedway has a strong safety record with no recordable accidents, Imperial said. Fitzgerald was a crane operator for Imperial Crane from 1990 to 2002 before he founded Speedway.

“Speedway Crane is a great fit for Imperial Crane as both companies strongly focus on safety, customer service and retaining skilled employees,” said Fitzgerald. “Imperial Crane’s solid reputation in the industry and continuously expanding fleet will allow us to magnify our existing relationships with our customers and offer additional resources that weren’t available to us before the merger. Being a previous employee of Imperial, I recognize that Imperial and Speedway share the same values and vision.”

“Imperial Crane is excited about this new venture and looks forward to passing on the benefits of this partnership to our loyal customers,” said Imperial Crane owner B.J. Bohne. “This acquisition will allow Imperial to open doors to a new customer base that was previously untapped. We welcome Mike and his team to the Imperial Crane family as they will have an immediate impact to enhance the ongoing success of our company.”

Imperial Crane Services has been committed to manufacturing and heavy industries for more than 45 years, providing crane rentals on daily or long-term lift projects with more than 250 units in its fleet. Imperial Crane is ranked as one of the top 25 crane companies by American Crane & Transport and is No. 44 on the RER 100.

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.

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