BOSS Crane & Rigging marked its move to a new headquarters Friday by putting four cranes on display and welcoming about 200 people to an open house.

Boss-Crane-Rigging

BOSS Crane chose the display because “everybody is used to hot air balloons here,” said President David Cowley, referring to the annual Great Texas Balloon Race. But rather than a balloon lifting a basket, the company hoisted a 550-ton crane that held an 8-ton carry-deck crane about 200 feet into the air for the benefit of visitors. Two other cranes were behind the building and not on display.

“Luckily, the rest (of the cranes) are out working,” said David Lowry, CEO of BOSS and nine other subsidiaries of parent company of Bennett International Group of McDonough, Georgia. He said the company has 34 cranes.

Lowry and Cowley started BOSS Crane in January in unincorporated Longview and moved in mid-October to the former Trican pressure company property at 4836 W. Loop 281, next to Norris Cylinder. The company provides equipment and operators for the oil and gas industry, wind energy, paper mills, mining and other industries.

BOSS bought and moved into the former Trican property because BOSS had outgrown its former site, which was leased. BOSS now has 183 employees, Cowley said, up from 157 on the payroll in August.

BOSS Crane’s goal is to be the best crane company in the United States, not the largest, said Marcia Taylor, who is Lowry’s mother and founded Bennett International in 1974.

Boss-Crane-Open-House-1

“We are so excited, just amazed at how the (new) facility turned out,” she said at the open house. “This facility is allowing us to grow.”

In addition to hoisting cranes, the open house featured speeches by Longview Mayor Andy Mack and company officials, a presentation of customer plaques, a Longview Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting and luncheon.

BOSS Crane parent company started small

According to the Longview New-Journal, BOSS Crane & Rigging is part of a transportation empire, Bennett International Group of McDonough, Georgia, founded in 1974 by Marcia Taylor as a small regional carrier.

Taylor’s son, David Lowry, CEO of BOSS Crane and about nine other subsidiaries, said he has seen the Bennett group grow to 900 trucks in the trucking division and 3,000 trucks overall since he started working for his mother 37 years ago.

Taylor has assembled a nationwide team of more than 3,000 contractors, agents and employees who have developed Bennett International into an “integrated, multifaceted company” that delivers services throughout the world, Bennett’s website states.

Services include full truckload, heavy haul and freight transportation, warehousing, distribution and supply-chain management services, post services, import/export forwarding, customs brokerage, logistics, vehicle transport, manufactured housing and recreational vehicle transport and transportation management.

By Ken Hedler

BOSS Crane and Rigging President David Cowley and CEO David Lowry

 

 

BOSS at a glance

Leadership: CEO David Lowry, President David Cowley

Headquarters: Longview

Locations: Longview, Harleton, Palestine, Beeville

Employees: 157

Equipment: 68 trucks, 34 cranes

Annual payroll: $7 million

BOSS CRANE AND RIGGING CEO David Lowry, Gregg Williams, Carolyn Williams, BOSS president David Cowley

BOSS CEO David Lowry, Gregg Williams, Carolyn Williams, of Real Estate Marketing, and BOSS president David Cowley attend the open house at BOSS Crane and Rigging on Friday December 1, 2017. (Michael Cavazos/News-Journal Photo)


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