Rotunda Capital Partners private equity firm has partnered with American Equipment, Pacific Crane & Hoist and Allied Crane to form the largest independent provider of overhead crane and hoist solutions and services in the Western US.

The combined company will operate as American Equipment Holdings with 14 locations throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

American Equipment, based in Salt Lake City, UT, provides a one-stop-shop for all overhead crane and hoist needs, including new equipment design, engineering and fabrication, system modernization, installation, inspection, maintenance, repair and training services. Its president and CEO, Adam Zimmerman, will retain a significant equity interest in the company and will lead the combined business.

Michael Perera, (former Demag Cranes manager and licensed engineer) founder of Pacific Crane & Hoist. will also retain an equity interest and will continue to provide complex and highly engineered overhead crane and hoist solutions to customers across a range of end markets throughout North America.

Dave Costa, founder of Allied Crane, in 1976, covering the Northern California market, will continue to support the company and its customers as a special advisor.

“Rotunda has been looking for an investment in material handling distribution and service for some time,” said Ryan Aprill, VP, Rotunda. “The combination of American Equipment with Pacific Crane & Hoist and Allied Crane brings together more than 100 years of collective industry experience and creates the premier consolidation platform in the highly fragmented North American overhead crane and hoist market.”

“This is an incredible opportunity for American Equipment. From our first meeting, it was clear Rotunda shared similar views as to the foundation we have created and what our company could achieve,” said Zimmerman. “Through this partnership, our culture and high-touch customer experience that we are known for won’t change, but we gain the expertise and capital to grow in a market with significant opportunity.”

According to Corey Whisner, a partner at Rotunda, the deal continues its tradition of acquiring family and founder-owned companies and partnering them with strong management teams and it wants to leverage the combined company’s geographic footprint and capabilities to expand upon its existing value-proposition, while also accelerating expanding into new markets.

“The combination of Pacific Crane & Hoist’s advanced and highly engineered system capabilities with American Equipment and Allied Crane is truly unique and will enable us to address any overhead crane and hoist project or service requirement entirely in-house,” added Perera.

“It gives me great pride knowing that the company I built for the last 45 years, and our employees will be joining an organization led by Rotunda and the most experienced overhead crane and hoist executives in the industry,” said Costa.

American Equipment Holdings will provide overhead crane and hoist needs, including new and replacement equipment, ISO certified fabrication, automated systems, system modernizations, parts, inspections (including OHSA and Cal-OSHA), preventative maintenance and repair services and training.

It represents manufacturers such as Detroit Hoist, Columbus McKinnon, ACCO, R&M, Demag, Gorbel, Spanco, IMS, Harrington, Conductix, Magnetek & PE, among others.

American Equipment, Pacific Crane & Hoist, Allied Crane Unite In ‘highly Fragmented’ North American Overhead Crane & Hoist Market