TNT Crane & Rigging, Inc. (TNT) announced early January that it has merged with the Southway Crane & Rigging Companies headquartered in Macon, Georgia. Southway is a full-service mobile crane provider with eight branches serving the Southeast US including Georgia, South Carolina, Northern Florida and Tennessee. With the addition of Southway, TNT has expanded its geographic operations from primarily Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma to an enterprise that now spans from West Texas to the Atlantic seaboard. TNT now owns approximately 380 cranes and provides full service capabilities utilizing its portfolio of truck mounted, all-terrain, rough terrain, crawlers, mobile gantries and rigging solutions with lifting capacities ranging from three tons up to 1,330 tons. TNT has further diversified its’ client base with the acquisition of Southway and their strong presence in the Power, Pulp & Paper, Telecom and Mining businesses. TNT participates in these and other industry verticals including Refining, Petrochemical, Oil & Gas, Wind (maintenance) and General Commercial Construction among others.
Michael Appling Jr., President and CEO of TNT stated, “We are extremely excited to bring together two of the best crane companies in the business. This combination puts us in a stronger and more competitive position from numerous perspectives. We will achieve greater industry and geographic diversification which greatly mitigates our overall business and concentration risk. Our combined fleets and capabilities, strong customer relationships and deep operational experience provide an excellent runway for strategic growth through maximizing utilization, penetrating new contiguous markets and taking advantage of pull through customer relationships in new geographies. Both TNT and Southway work hard to be industry leaders in safety and operational excellence and this combination can only strengthen our reputation and market position. We welcome the Southway employees into the TNT family and we enthusiastically look forward to building and growing a great company together.”
Kregg Lunsford, who recently joined TNT as Chief Development Officer added, “Southway has an impressive management team and their approach to growing the business is perfectly aligned with our strategy. We are thrilled to join forces with Jerry Reynolds, Greg Fussell, James Simons, Guy Lopez and the entire Southway team. In this business we own and operate a large fleet of expensive cranes but our most valuable asset is our people. The human capital coming with this transaction provides us critical leadership and experience that will enable us to continue performing safely and profitably at a high level and executing our growth strategy.”
Jerry Reynolds, founder and majority shareholder of Southway, will join TNT as Executive Vice President managing the Southeast region and will continue as President of the Southway companies. Jerry commented on the transaction, “Our employees are excited about this deal. This expands our geographic foot print and we’ve already identified real opportunities to share assets and expertise across our respective regional markets and customers. Southway and TNT share a common culture around safety, excellent service and smart business. We are going to have a lot of fun taking this business to the next level.”