Shawmut Equipment, which carries Manitowoc Crane Group’s construction cranes and multiple lines of utility equipment, celebrates 60 years in business this year.
Shawmut branch in South Easton, MassachusettsGeorge O’Connell founded the company in 1957 and members of his family continue to run the business today, with his son David taking over as president in 1978 and David’s sons Brian and Kevin and nephew Joe Vergoni joining the business in the early 2000s. The latter three serve as vice presidents and sales reps for the company.
The company carries Manitowoc Crawler Cranes, Grove Rough Terrain Cranes, Grove GMK All Terrain Cranes, Grove Hydraulic Crawler Cranes, Grove Yard Boss Industrial Cranes, National Boom Trucks, Potain Self-Erecting Cranes, Terex TM Hi-Ranger Tracked Material Handling Buckets, Terex General Digger Derricks, Tracked National Cranes and Morooka Rubber Track Carriers.
“Our business philosophy is to do the right thing for the customer in each and every aspect of the business,” says David O’Connell. “This is the only way to succeed. We have repeat customers who have done business with us for generations, as well as new customers who are doing business with us for the first time. We attempt to treat all customers in a fair and honest manner, whether it concerns an equipment sale, a rental, a parts purchase or service work.”
Company highlights include:
- 1957 – George O’Connell starts the company.
- 1963 – the company becomes one of Grove’s first distributors, serving Connecticut and Western Massachusetts out of its Manchester, Connecticut, office.
- 1995 – Shawmut iss made the exclusive dealer for the Manitowoc Company’s crawler crane line for all of New England.
- Late 1990s – Shawmut opens another full-service facility in Massachusetts, speeding up response time for service and parts in the expanded territory.
- 2008 – the company creates Shawmut Equipment of Canada as a subsidiary to handle the territory covering Atlantic provinces of Canada and opened a facility in Saint John, New Brunswick.
- 2014 – Shawmut starts offering Terex TM Hi-Ranger Tracked Material Handling Buckets, Terex General Digger Derricks, Tracked National Cranes and Morooka Rubber Track Carriers for the utility market.
- 2017 – the company starts constructing a new facility in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia, with the site to serve as the headquarters for the Maritime provinces of Canada.
