The management team at Crane Tech, from left: Frank Hegan, President; Robert Kohler, VP; and Mike Kohler, VP of parts and service. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
By T.J. Prieur
Diversification is the key to long term growth and success, says Manfred Kohler and Frank Hegan of Crane Tech Solutions, in Portsmouth.
The company sells, services, and repairs heavy equipment such as overhead and specialty cranes and marine and port equipment. “Everything we do is connected to cranes in some way,” explains Hegan, who as president of the company sees his main focus as “helping to guide the company into different product lines.”
There latest venture is light bulbs.
Not just any light bulbs, of course, these are LED bulbs, some specifically designed for much of the equipment they sell.
The company was founded in the mid-1990’s by Koehler when he had the opportunity to buy out a German company which was closing its U.S. office.
Hegan had also worked for the Germany company and while at the time he went on to work for another business, Koehler asked him to become a member of his board of directors at Crane.
In 2009, as Koehler began to look forward to retirement, Hegan stepped in as president of the firm, which also has two other partners, Koehler’s sons.
It’s a challenge being a family business. “That’s why I have Frank here,” Koehler says of Hegan. “It’s hard to be both a dad and a boss. They report to Frank, not me.”
Diversification has been especially important in the last few years as the construction industry hit a slow down. “That’s why we are always looking at other products with broader reach into different markets as well,” Hegan says. “I want the company to stand on multiple legs, not just one. It’s a balancing act from a management perspective.
Hegan and Kohler balance not just their varied product line, but also about 25 employees in two different locations, in Portsmouth and in Harmony, Pa., near Pittsburgh. The Portsmouth facility consists of 21,000 Square feet of warehouse and service center including an industrial paint booth.
Cranes may have brought the company into the LED market – “our crane operators were complaining about wanting a better light,” says Hegan, but he and Kohler don’t plan to limit their LED business to the crane industry.
“LED’s are the wave of the future,” Kohler says enthusiastically. “Where ever you see a light bulb there’s a problem that the LED is the potential solution for. The LED lasts longer, and look at the cold storage industry. The incandescent lights give off heat. The LED doesn’t. That means you pay less to keep things cool.”
A small business must be opportunistic, says Hegan. It must be ready to change quickly as the market changes.
“Construction is always cyclical. Eventually it will come back, in fact we’re already seeing the beginning of a turn around. But in the meantime, we need to have other ways to make money. We have a future in LED lights. The only question is just how the market share we can get.”
“That’s the bottom line in business,” adds Kohler. “Market share and growth are the measures of success.”
