Pickles offers solutions to help uplift crane businesses, whether it’s time to retire or to invest in the future.
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Some Australian businesses are feeling the pressure of tough economic conditions and have had to innovate and strategise to stay ahead in 2024. The crane industry has been one of the most fluctuating sectors, with a boom-and- bust cycle that started during COVID-19 and is still ongoing and impacting operators.
With a range of unavoidable economic and operations-based matters impacting the industry, Pickles has ramped up its crane-specific sales and solutions to service the Australian businesses that need it most. After 60 years in the business, Pickles is used to navigating transitional markets and how conditions can impact sales of industrial assets like cranes.
The Australian crane industry fills a vital role in infrastructure and construction, making it a cornerstone of the industrial sector. And as one of Australia’s leading resellers of used industrial assets, Pickles is well positioned to offer crane-focused services to both buyers and sellers throughout the market. By monitoring data and trends, Pickles has been able to guide partners through the sales process during the last few years and is constantly improving these solutions to ensure that crane operators are supported in the years to come.
Over the last two financial years combined, Pickles sold 201 crane industry assets across dozens of sales events. Its huge marketplace offers operators the most exposure for their assets and, within the niche sector of cranes, more views, more potential buyers and better chances of maximising the returns on an asset.
This extensive database ensures assets reach the right buyers quickly – maximising returns and minimising the time assets spend off the market.
It is this exposure to the market that has enabled Pickles to truly magnify the potential of each asset for each owner. These efforts were successful and well-rewarded, as the sale of cranes at Pickles in the last two financial years totalled $54 million, with the sale price of an individual asset fetching $268,000 on average.
With the average asset fetching over a quarter of million dollars at a Pickles auction, businesses have become very aware of the value of their assets and have started strategically planning the lifecycle of their assets to maximise business profits and returns.
One of the ways businesses can maximise returns on their asset is by offloading it in a timely and efficient manner. With the ever-growing cost of crane inspections and maintenance, considering when best to retire, offload or replace an asset has become a crucial aspect of business ownership.
With a foot in every industrial sector, Pickles is hyper aware of the growing need to offer and cater to crane-specific sales in a way that benefited both buyers and sellers. That’s why Pickles revitalised its auction schedule, to implement consistent quarterly crane auctions and dedicated event sales for operators who wanted to offload their assets all at once.
These quarterly national crane sales have now been running for three years and have become a way for sellers of any size to access Pickles’ huge international buyer base.
As a business with a strong commitment to both customer and community, Pickles’ Vision, Purpose and Mission statement is centred around being the first choice for anyone buying and selling assets, to be a trusted marketplace and to earn lifelong partnerships.
These values are integral to structuring sales that directly benefit every customer. South Australian Sales Manager Andy Sweetman notes the importance of these changes for the industry.
‘Because the crane industry has had so much movement in the last few years, Pickles jumped to the challenge of creating sales and services that really suited the niche needs of crane operators,” he says.