Uperio Acquires Compass Equipment

June 20, 2022 - Uperio Group, active worldwide in sales, rental, service, and manufacturing of tower cranes, has acquired Compass Equipment Holdings LLC, a lifting-equipment company with four locations in the western United States.

Compass Equipment, founded and managed by Kelly Hadland and Ray Bellamy, sells, rents, and services tower cranes and personnel/material hoists for construction and industrial sites.
The company also provides customers with qualified crane and equipment operators.

With a total of more than 70 employees at its four depots in Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; and Los Angeles, California, Compass operates a fleet of 45 tower cranes and 45 construction hoists.

Compass is an authorized dealer for Potain tower cranes and has a long-standing partnership with access solution provider Alimak.

The acquisition is of strategic importance to Uperio, which expects to strengthen its geographical presence in the U.S. and diversify its equipment and brand portfolio. The French tower crane leader sees considerable development potential for both equipment segments in sales, rental, and service.

Uperio CEO Philippe Cohet said, "Compass is an addition with excellent potential for us in every respect. On the one hand, the four depots in the west of the USA provide very important access to regions with good development prospects in residential construction. On the other hand, it provides a broader overall product offering to our group. While the market in the regions is competitive, we believe that with a strengthening of Compass' operating model and support of Uperio Group in multiple dimensions, we will be able to profitably accelerate its growth, especially with their healthy order backlog."

Kelly Hadland of Compass added, "We are pleased to have found a partner in Uperio that has the resources and expertise to lead Compass into a bright future - building on the solid foundation we have established. The markets in our regions are promising, and we are confident that we will wisely execute plans for further growth with its proven management expertise."

Kelly Hadland and Ray Bellamy will remain in charge of the business, together with the current team.

“At Uperio, we aim high, we act as a game changer, and we are people-driven,” Cohet added. “With our new colleagues from the western USA, we plan to raise the quality of our operations, to continue investing in the fleet and gain a premium market leadership position thanks to the unique quality of our people. We are very excited about our future.”