Based in Melbourne’s south-east, Gleason Cranes have built a reputation as a cost-effective, reliable service provider in the crane industry. Sales director Chris Logan talks about the products they sell, with a large focus on the Zoomlion brand and their forecasted increase in stock and availability.
Providing the Australian market with quality lifting machinery and equipment at cost effective prices for over 50 years, Victoria-based Gleason Cranes is a household name in the crane hire, purchase, and servicing industry. As well as hosting the largest used-crane marketplace in Australia, Gleason Cranes is the national distributor of the Zoomlion, Ormig, and Mi-jack brands.
It’s through the Zoomlion brand that sales director Chris Logan sees the most growth occurring in Australia. Founded in 1992, Zoomlion supplies house-manufactured equipment to over 70 countries worldwide, with Chris underscoring his view that the quality of the Zoomlion product is becoming abundantly clear to anyone paying attention.
“A lot of brands that expanded outside of Asia have successfully completed what Zoomlion is currently doing now,” he says. “If you go back to the 70s and 80s, the Japanese and Korean crane manufacturers really struggled with their reputations in Australia but successfully turned it around. Now, everyone knows the quality of Tadano, Kato, Kobelco – what they did in the 70s and 80s is what Zoomlion is doing right now.”
Having distributed Zoomlion’s products across the Oceania region for the best part of 15 years, the team at Gleason Cranes is well acquainted with the product; and, as Chris says, if the “quality” wasn’t there, “we just wouldn’t sell it.”
With its cranes standing up to the harshest environments across Australia, whether it be the red and black dust of the mines or the colder climes on the Snowy Hydro project, the Zoomlion brand is standing up.
As a member of the International Standard Organisation, all Zoomlion products are compliant with European, American, and Australian standards. Being the fifth largest construction equipment manufacturer globally, Zoomlion ranked third amongst crane manufacturers in the 2022 KHL Yellow Table for market share percentage, indicative of how their quality is viewed across the world.
Chris and Gleason Cranes are doing such good work with the Zoomlion brand that its expansion is taking place on both sides of Australia’s border. Gleason Cranes is now looking to move into bigger premises to be able to hold the stock that is set to come its way over the coming year. According to Chris, the company is also looking to invest in floats to transport its products up, down and across the coasts of Australia.
“Zoomlion are very happy with what we’re doing,” he says. “Over the next 12 months, we’ll have an array of products coming into the country that we’ll be able to sell to people, encompassing cranes for all kinds of environments.”
Among those cranes are hydraulic boom crawler cranes ranging through 30-tonnes, 60-tonnes, 90-tonnes, and 150-tonne capacities, and a full range of truck cranes including extras in the 25-tonne and 30-tonne, 55-tonne capacity class.
There is also a new 120-tonne capacity all-terrain crane that is expected to arrive in Australia by September – with Gleason Cranes expecting to take on a range of new rough-terrain cranes ranging from 40-tonne capacity to 110-tonne capacity over the next six months, as well as some crawler cranes with expanded lifting capacities from 30-tonne to over 500-tonne. As Chris notes, these cranes were manufactured in parts of the world with high demand for windfarm work and nuclear power stations, and thus will come readily equipped to handle any energy construction work thrown at them in Australia.
Ultimately, Chris wants to ensure Zoomlion distributor Gleason Cranes holds enough stock and spare parts to ensure that, should it be called upon for any servicing, parts, or purchasing needs, they will have the resources on demand to fulfil that service.
“It’s a big part of our philosophy when it comes to selling machinery,” says Chris. “We want to sell quality equipment at an affordable price, and then provide a post-sale service and support that eclipses all our competitors.”
“All of our staff want to work together, and we know if we do that, then we’ll sell more cranes because we’ve provided a good service that everyone’s happy with.”
For Chris and the team at Gleason Cranes, selling a crane is only one part of the equation when it comes to providing good customer service. With service centres and support teams stationed across the nation, Chris says that customers know they can not only trust the quality of the Zoomlion brand, but also the back-up support provided by Gleason Cranes accompanying the sale of the crane.
Stories from past editions of Cranes and Lifting substantiate this. Owner of Central Coast-based company NR Cranes Nathan Randles spoke of how well a 50-tonne Zoomlion had held up when he was working with Tomago Aluminium, and how it convinced him to purchase a new Zoomlion ZTC251V truck crane.
Additionally, Managing Director of LTE Construction Nick Maric was effusive in his praise for his ZCT600V, highlighting its “impressive” performance in piling works and noting the crane’s “reliability” – citing his previous experience as the main reason to return to the Braeside-based dealer again for a new crane.
The same recurring themes come to the fore in what these business owners say when discussing the Zoomlion brand and the service received from Gleason Cranes; along with everyone else who’s spoken to Cranes and Lifting about their experiences with the team at Gleason Cranes, they were nothing but complimentary about the manner that Chris conducted their sales, the bang for their buck they had received from their Zoomlions, and the practicality of the cranes.
Touted as being a “third-to-half the price of European cranes”, Chris is adamant the cost-effectiveness of Zoomlion’s cranes is not because of a compromise on quality but, rather, a combination of available stock and cheaper raw materials and labour.
“The quality is right up there,” he says. “Any customer we speak to is loving their cranes, irrespective of whether it’s a hydraulic crawler crane, truck crane, anything.”
“The Zoomlion brand is consistently our best-seller, and that’s because of the quality they display.”
READ MORE: Gleason Cranes provide new Zoomlion to Mirri Cranes & Rigging.