Second-generation owner of Lindores Mobile Cranes, Chantelle Lindores, discusses the history of the company, her key lessons learned in owning a business, and the “things that parents throw at you”.
In 1985, Peter Lindores began Total Rigging, a crane hire company dedicated to providing rigging and crane services to the South East Queensland construction market.
However, go back to the late 80s and early 90s and ask Chantelle Lindores what she would be doing in her career, and her answer would resolutely be anything but what her parents did. And yet…
“Here I am,” she says, “currently living in my parents’ house, running a crane hire company after buying into the industry whilst my Dad still ran a large crane company and my mother had started her own EWP company doing exactly what they had done for years.
The journey from 1985 to 2024 in the crane industry has not been a smooth one for Chantelle Lindores.
By her own admission, she frequently ponders what keeps her in the crane industry and, to find the source of that passion, she takes us back to her foundational years.
“Cranes have always been in my DNA,” she says. “Right from a young age, I was always around the office and crane yard, I was giving up my school holidays to help with administration, and even today, as an owner, I’m still working around some people who worked with my Dad,” said Chantelle.
From writing her own Franna licenses with her girlfriend, to helping her Mum, Colleen, in accounts, to travelling into the office on school holidays to answer phones, Chantelle holds a unique insight into the foundation of the company that is today named Lindores Mobile Cranes – and the story of how it got there is an emotional one.
Following the initial introduction of Total Rigging that was started by Peter and co-investor, Boyce Narung, in 1985, Peter made the decision to buy out his co-owner and go solo in 1987.
For the next two decades, the company evolved to become a staple in general the general construction industry – a time that Chantelle reflects on with fond memories.
“I grew up around these people as a baby, and I always had fun and felt like they were a good bunch of people,” she says.
“I’ve got distinct memories of being hosed down by one of the team just for a laugh, and I’ve always felt the fun nature of the industry has suited me.”
After two decades under Peter and Colleen, however, the business had run its course and, following the handover of Mini Cranes Queensland from Chris Austin to the Lindores family in 2007, the company focussed a lot more on the mobile crane hire side of operations.
Now under the joint ownership of Chantelle and her partner at the time, she says the days between 2007 and 2015 when she took sole ownership of the company were some of the hardest that she’s faced, both professionally and personally.
“I raised three kids while he ran the business, and he didn’t do a very good job of it,” she says.
“When I found out what he was doing, I thought ‘we need to turn it around’. Step one in that process was taking control of the business myself, getting divorced and step two was streamlining the business,” said Chantelle.
And streamline it she did. Rebranding as Lindores Mobile Cranes in 2015, Chantelle leaned on the niche market
of smaller crane hire and mini crawler cranes to get the business back on its feet.
Today, the company owns a range of mini crawler cranes spanning from 2.8 tonnes in capacity through to 4.8 tonnes, a 13-tonne Kato City Crane, a range of Franna pick and carry cranes, one 35-tonne Humma pick and carry crane, and a whole range of slew cranes spanning up to 55 tonnes in capacity. With more to come.
For Chantelle, the journey to take the company from where it was to where it is today represents a story of peaks, troughs, and perseverance.
“The hardest time for me was right when I took sole ownership; I was feeling like I didn’t know anything and there was one time I said to my parents that I was done, and I just couldn’t do it anymore,” she says.
“They reassured me that it would all be okay, and I persisted through the hard times to get to where we are today.”
And, through that perseverance, Chantelle, by her own admission, enjoyed her time – especially with the unwavering support of her team by her side.
“I had three guys working for me that I relied on greatly; one of them Tez, is still here, as he came with the business back in 2007,” she says. “He’s a crane driver and without his support, I would not be here today.”
Image: Lindores Mobile Cranes.
Despite getting business back on track, however, the world still held more curveballs to throw at Chantelle and the fortunes of Lindores Mobile Cranes; fortunately for her and the team though, the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just not break the Southeastern Queensland crane hire company, but instead made it what it is today.
“Before COVID we weren’t doing as well as we’d have liked; then, as soon as the pandemic hit, conversely to a range of other small businesses, our workload tripled,” she says.
“We came out the other side of the pandemic still going strong and today we’re still doing just as much if not more.”
With a laugh, she says the uptake in business has forced her to develop her financial and business acumen; looking
to the future, with a proper accounting structure in place and plans to purchase more machines in the next decade or two, she says Lindores Mobile Cranes is in a strong position to continue as its tracking – as long as that falls within its modus operandi.
“Our outlook over the next 10 to 15 years would be to buy at least another 10 cranes and continue revitalising our fleet,” she says. “I’ve always said I wouldn’t go over 100 tonnes, because I just don’t want to deal with all the big boys and their toys; I want to be general hire and looking after the customers that we’ve already got.”
Because, for Chantelle being good at her niche is what’s taken Lindores Mobile Cranes to the heights she’s hitting today. Labelling her father’s desire for her to purchase 10 350-tonne crawler cranes to go and service the telecommunications aspect of crane hire as ‘the random things parents throw at you’, Chantelle says the company is perfectly happy to keep things simple and straightforward ahead of getting too adventurous.
“We’ve got some really good customers in building houses and general hire,” she continues, “and I’d just like to look after them so we can continue to specialise in our niche. We’re not here to take over the world, we just want to be good at what we do.”
As Chantelle mentioned, from an asset point of view, Lindores Mobile Cranes is more than covered when it comes to its future plans; in its second generation of Lindores family ownership, however, Chantelle has one eye on the future and the prospect of her kids taking the business into a third generation of family ownership.
Saying that she’d love for her three children to either take over the business or play some integral role in its future, she’s also keen to stress that, as long as they’re happy, then so is she.
“My parents are 71 years old and still working, because they love what they’re doing; I want to be enjoying my retirement at that age,” she says. “My children are in a mixture of travelling, schooling, and apprenticeships, and whatever choices they make, I’ll support them entirely.”
“My parents never pushed the business onto me; it just happened through being in the right place at the right time and taking an opportunity that presented itself, and that’s how I want to be with my kids” she continues.
“Some of them have said they want to work elsewhere which I’m all for because we can’t just work for our parents for our entire lives. I would never push this onto my kids but, on the other hand, if they want to come back into the business, they’ll be welcomed with open arms because I’d love it if they took it over.”
Because, despite the trials and tribulations that she’s faced in the industry over the past 40 years, according to Chantelle, the people that she’s met, the projects that she’s worked on, and her own personal successes have brought a lot of fulfilment and self-development to her life and taught her what it means to persevere through adversity.
“My time working around cranes has shown me that I can survive anything, and that level of belief is irreplaceable,” she says. “There were days where I just didn’t feel like it, but we’ve rebounded to the point where I know that it’s going to be okay with the right level of application.”
And as for her key lesson learned?
“Finding the right people to support you is the thing,” she says. “Knowing other people in the industry who can sympathise with you is a godsend, and sharing in each other’s successes is what makes the job enjoyable at the end of the day.”