Started in a Barn

On July 1, 1987, George Frost left his father-in-law's crane company to set out on his own. The concept from the beginning was simple, 50% service, 50% new installations, to be a company that could provide turn-key crane and hoist solutions. From the beginning, Mass Crane was a family company. George's wife, Sue Frost, maintained the company's finances during those first, often lean years. Including George and Sue, Mass Crane and Hoist started out with a staff of 4 full time employees and was based out of a barn in their backyard in Dunstable, MA. George remembers a customer that couldn't accept delivery of a 60' long patented track system, so they re-routed the flatbed to his house and used his bucket tractor to shuttle the beams down his driveway.

The 1990's: Gradual and Consistent Growth

Two challenging years of hard work and dedication led to a 1989 move to a 2-bay garage in Westech Industrial Park. The move was only 4 miles from the barn geographically, but a huge leap for the young company. The fabrication bay in Westech was 20'x60', and before long they were building cranes that would fill the entire bay. Mass Crane had grown to about 7 full-time employees by this time and the company's name became more well known in the industry.

By 1995, Mass Crane was bursting at the seams and needed more space for fabrication. The solution was another relocation, this time 9 miles south to Turnpike Road in Chelmsford. His staff had continued to grow as well, George estimates he had reached a dozen full time employees by the mid-90's. Again, it wasn't long before the company needed more room. In 2000, they added a 100'x40' main bay to the facility on Turnpike Road, to a total fabrication area of 7,500 sq-ft. Here Mass Crane would stay for another 8 years, though the company would grow in other ways during the early 2000's.

An Easy Decision, and a Difficult One

George's two sons, Scott and Jon, had grown up around the company, working in the shop or in the field after school, doing the odd-jobs, the dirty jobs, that are a part of doing business. In the early 2000's both came on board with Mass Crane full time. Scott joined the sales group and Jon joined the service department. Combined with several other recent additions, the number of full-time employees was now approaching 20.

Then, in 2003, a local competitor dissolved and the company had a decision to make. They could take advantage of the immediate availability of several talented individuals with both knowledge and experience in the industry. This carried with it the risk of growing too fast. The other option was to continue the slow growth that had been so effective in Mass Crane's 15-year history. They opted to take a chance and over the next two years, Mass Crane brought on a general manager, a project manager, another salesman, a millwright, and several service technicians.