Condra Cranes & Hoists

Initially structured as a Johannesburg-based consultancy and drawing office with general engineering capabilities, later research into the South African market for hoists and overhead cranes revealed an opportunity which Condra’s management believed the company could fill – that of local manufacture in place of local assembly from imported components. The research indicated that there existed substantial demand for a range of robust cranes and hoists if these could be competitively priced. Manufacture of the first overhead cranes began in 1971. Four years later Condra moved to a custom-built factory, still in Johannesburg, where design and manufacture of the first hoists began. The company remains headquartered in Johannesburg today, but growth has been such that the size of the original factory and offices was doubled in 1982, and in 2008 Condra moved to its current premises, a site that includes an under-roof area of about three times the size of the previous factory. Soon after this move, Condra commissioned its first European plant, in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria.