Morris resurrects Royce brand for USA

Morris Material Handling Ltd, the UK company that used to be owned by Morris Material Handling Inc of the USA, has revived a venerable old brand with which to re-enter the North American market.

When Morris Inc (formerly P&H Harnischfeger) sold the bulk of its overseas operations to the UK-based management team, a key part of the deal was who had rights to use the Morris name in which territories.

In North, Central and South America, the Morris name can only be used by the Wisconsin-based crane and hoist company that also uses the P&H brand name, the name by which the company went by until it was sold by Harnischfeger in April 1998 to a financial investment group. In the rest of the world, the Morris name belongs to the Loughborough, UK manufacturer that owned the name from 1884 until it sold out to Harnischfeger in 1994.

The UK Morris - Morris Material Handling Ltd - has now revived the name of a company that it acquired in the distant past to enter the American market. Royce Cranes is offering crane builders in North, Central and South America the Hoistmaster 400 Series electric wire rope hoists, which are similar to the 400 Series that Morris Ltd sells around the rest of the world, but adapted specifically for the American market. Both Morris and Royce offer their customers the option of putting their own branding on the hoists.

According to the Royce Cranes website (www.roycecranes.com), which has an on-line ordering facility for the benefit of customers in the Americas, Henry Frederick Royce - who made dynamos in the early days of the electric street lighting industry, began offering hoists and cranes in 1894.

Royce joined with Charles Rolls in 1906 to form Rolls Royce, which became one of the world's leading engineering and manufacturing companies. As Henry Royce's interests lay increasing with the motor industry, Manchester-based Royce Cranes was sold to Herbert Morris in the 1920s.