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GUY CRANE, the administrative director of Cranes (Dereham), Ltd., is endeavouring to ensure that, before long, his company will become one of the acknowledged leaders of the world trailer industry. It has already been announced that Cranes have formed a new company jointly with Fruehauf International, Ltd., a subsidiary of Fruehauf Trailer Company, of Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., to build and sell semi-trailers. A much bigger production of trailers will be carried out, both at Dereham and in a substantial new works being built at North Walsham, a Norfolk town near the present headquarters of the firm. The new company, Crane Fruehauf Trailers. Ltd., will, it is hoped, build up to employ a considerable labour force.
I asked Guy Crane, young for his 53 years, thickset, and with a restless energy, to tell me how and why this merger had been achieved. "My father, who built the business, died in May. 1960," he said. "Until the last few years of his life he ruled it—and my brother and I as well. About five years ago he had talks in Paris with a Fruehauf executive. We had for some time known that this large U.S. trailer company was interested in setting up in
Great Britain. .
"For many reasons we decided to go in with them. They have very considerable reserves and have a wide field of influence in the international trailer business. But it is no one-sided bargain. We have much experience to • exchange with Fruehauf."
Guy Crane told me this with some diffidence. He obviously did not want to take too personal a credit in a business which had, until the past few years, been controlled by his father and which, in any case, he manages jointly with his brother, sales director John Crane. John Crane, a skilled engineer with a Cambridge engineering degree, is no less than 15 years younger than his brother, Guy.
The Crane engineering business grew out of a Norfolk village blacksmith's shop, opened by Guy, and John Crane's grandfather a century ago. The smith's younger son, W. F. Crane, became a qualified engineer and, in 1913, set up an agricultural engineering business at Dereham. It was after the 1914-18 war, influenced by contact with R. A. Dyson, of Liverpool, that Cranes began to build trailers.
It was in 1929, when Guy Crane first joined the firm, that it produced its first trailer for Pickfords, capable of taking 100-ton loads. It seemed the ultimate in trailer production. Now some are twice as big and the limiting factor is not the building of the trailers, but road engineering restrictions.
W. F. Crane chose a public school for his son's education, but later submitted him to a considerable contrast. Guy Crane, at 17, began his engineering training at a steel foundry in Fifeshire, living with a steelworker and his family. It proved also to be an introduction to Left Wing politics. "It has not made me a lifelong Socialist," says Guy Crane with a smile, "but I think it has helped me to understand and appreciate the men who do the work."
He then went for a year to Dennis Bros., Ltd., at Guildford, and for two more years to the Pickfords repair depot, to Wright's foundry at Birmingham, who manufacture the famous Radiation gas stoves, and to a small factory making axles. Then, following office experience with Pickfords, Guy Crane might have been thought ready to join the family firm to train for an executive position. First, however, came 12 months of world travel as purser's clerk with the Blue Funnel Line.
Office Untouched
The place that W. F. Crane occupied is illustrated by the fact that his office at the Dereham works remains just as he left it, Its solid furniture and general air of austerity characterize the man and his undoubted success in his chosen industry.
"I would not call myself a practical engineer," says Guy Crane. "I have a considerable knowledge of engineering —how could it be otherwise after 32 years here. I much prefer to call myself an administrator.
"I can take but little credit for the fact that we make some of the biggest and best trailers in the world. They are built under patents which we hold and the credit for the Crane technical prowess belongs to our chief designer and technical director, Mr. W. D. Chaplin.
" I spend my time looking after our general administration, policy, planning and purchasing. I have a keen interest in our promotional activities, particularly in my liaison with our advertising agents and public relations consultants. I also have an eye to all financial matters, but I have had to learn to delegate and to use the keen minds around me to the best advantage for us all. Cranes now have a most excellent team of specialist directors and executives, who contribute greatly towards our success."
Tenfold Increase
Thirty years ago, the firm employed 25 men; this has increased tenfold. Much of this progress has been in the last six years and never have men been stood off for lack of work.
Guy Crane lives with his wife and family in a former rectory in a Norfolk village. He has three children: a daughter taking a diploma course, a daughter of 12 at boarding school, and a son who is studying at an agricultural college. When he can get away from the cares of business, he loves to sail his 20-ft. cruiser on the Norfolk rivers and Broads. He tries his hand at oil painting, and he explores churches and country inns.
But his ability to relax away from the office is going to be severely limited during the next few months. Like his father before him, he will want to supervise everything that has to be done and, further, ensure that it is well done before Crane Fruehauf Trailers, Ltd., begin production at North Walsham next year. C.M.H.