Celebrating 80 years of Chapel-en-le-Frith’s Street Crane

Founded in 1946, Street Crane Company has grown from a small engineering firm into one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of overhead cranes and hoists.

The journey began with a vision to provide innovative lifting solutions that meet the highest standards of quality and safety.

Over the decades, the team has expanded its product range and capabilities, always staying at the forefront of technological advancements in the lifting industry.

Second generation business owner Martin Street said: “My father started repairing neglected cranes after leaving the RAF in 1946.

“Business took off and we’re here having expanded and grown so much over the years.”

Peter served his country as a WWII Spitfire pilot and played an active role in many wartime events including campaigns in North Africa and Italy.

Within a week of returning to civilian life on leaving the RAF, Peter took his £88 gratuity and started a business in the “steel town” of Sheffield servicing and repairing the neglected cranes in the local workshops.

Martin said: “I’ve been here since the 1970s and my son, William, entered the business in 2020.”

Across the company there are many people who have been with the business for decades including Gus Zona who is the Managing Director for Street Crane.

Gus has been with the team since 1988 and said: “This is quite a niche job and so we have to find and develop the talent.

“We invest in our apprentices and there is career progression within the company as well.”

Street Crane employs around 70 people at the High Peak site and Gus says many have 25 years or more experience.

The business also has a Northampton site which employs around 40 people and this year to mark the 80th anniversary the company has opened a site in America and there are options for people to relocate across the pond to help start up the international base.

Gus said: “Eighty years is a big milestone and one we are all proud of and rightly so.

“To be a business that is growing and going international even after so many years shows how much drive there is herealong with the need and desire to keep improving.”

To mark the anniversary Street Crane held an open day in the summer where past workers returned and the community was invited in.

Martin said: “We had more than 1,000 people come through the doors that day, everyone from kids and teens and people who worked here in years gone by and it was lovely to see so many faces here.” Gus explained that being a business in a small rural community there are other opportunities for people in bigger cities but they want to encourage people to come here and use their talents for our business.

“That’s why we invest so much in our team,” said Gus.

“Without the people around us we wouldn’t be where we are today and so we are so grateful to everyone who has been on this journey with us.”

Martin said: “There is so much work that goes into making a crane and it can take between 10 and 25 weeks for just one crane.

“We make around 400 cranes a year and they are shipped nationally as well as internationally.

“And in that one crane there are so many different job roles, so many people who have used their technical expertise and skills to bring a product to life.” The business holds accreditations with various leading industry bodies and says these recognitions underscore its ‘dedication to quality, compliance, and the highest standards of health, safety, wellbeing, and sustainability’ in everything they do.

Some of the unique projects Street Crane has been involved in includes working with the Sheffield AMRC Factory 2050 is the UK’s first reconfigurable assembly and component manufacturing facility for collaborative research.

AMRC required reliable and efficient overhead cranes which would be in constant use, locating, moving, and positioning heavier objects such as robots and machine beds.

One of the key challenges was to source an overhead crane that could operate effectively around the circular building.

Street designed, manufactured, and installed a bespoke, circular overhead crane capable of lifting products weighing up to five tonnes.

This single girder crane incorporates bespoke end carriages that enable it to travel around the curved track of the circular building.

Two 10 tonne cranes were also supplied and installed. These can operate in tandem, ensuring more stability, which is essential for lifting objects such as flexible aircraft wings.

Another project included serving the worldwide oil and gas industry, Dunlop Oil & Marine which produces specialist hoses for every stage of oil and gas field development.

The company required bespoke overhead cranes to significantly improve order turnaround, so turned to Street Crane for the solution.

Due to the limited height, the beam of a conventional crane would have been too deep, so Street engineered special cranes to overcome this. In the main production area, six single girder cranes were configured as two triple girder cranes using rigid link beams.

Martin added: “I am so proud of where this company has come from when my father set it up to where it is now taking on these huge technical challenges.

“And I’m excited to see how it will progress for the next generation.”