The new Morris Crane Factory, built as a joint venture between Morris Material Handling of the UK and the HA Al Zamil Brothers Group, marks a new stage in the Saudi business house's investment portfolio, which has expanded in recent years to include household names in industry.

The plant, located at Dammam's First Industrial City, will produce cranes for the Saudi and Gulf markets. "History has shown our group to be pioneers," said Dr Abdulrahman A Al Zamil, chairman of Zamil Saudi Arabia. "We have 7,000 employees in manufacturing in Saudi Arabia in steel buildings, air conditioners, glazing systems, construction and food processing."

Executive manager of the joint venture, Brian Yates, said: "Morris has been delivering cranes into Saudi Arabia since the 1950s. This 5,000 sq m facility is equipped with all the latest technology to replicate our UK manufacturing operations."

This Dammam factory is also the base for Morris's extensive servicing and testing teams within the entire Gulf area, he said. For over a century, Morris has been in the forefront of implementing materials handling and lifting solutions across the spectrum of industry and commerce from workshops and warehouses to shipyards and manufacturing plants.

The company's crane design software program, CraneSolve, helps define the ideal solution for lifting problems and provides accurate cost estimates, said a Morris spokesman.

The company makes standard cranes, engineered cranes, Jib cranes, hand cranes, kits and explosion proof products as new installations or retrofit.

The 400 series of wire rope hoists, considered the workhorse of industry around the globe, is designed and manufactured to meet the highest standards including BS 466 (ISO 4301), BS 2573 and FEM 9.511 and is fully compliant with all CE requirements including machinery directives and low-voltage directives. The S3 Series of electric chain hoists has capacities from 125kg to two tonnes and drawn-up dimensions from just 295mm allowing use almost anywhere. It has 48 volts, low-voltage control circuits for complete electrical protection. The 190 Series of hoists offers capacities from 500kg to 20 tonnes. The key capacities 500kg, 1 tonne, 2 tonne and 3 tonne are available as Class M2 hoists for heavy-duty use giving twice the Morris Material Handling, which emerged as an independent company following a successful management buy out of the business from receivership in 2001, is the largest UK-based manufacturer of cranes and hoists. It has a network of 13 Material Handling Centres (MHCs) in the UK in addition to over 200 independent distributors.

"We maintain cranes that are up to 70 years old," says Roy Humpherson, one of Morris' regional managers. The MHCs operate hand-in-glove with Morris Parts Division, which gives them access to a number of unique services.

Morris recently won several significant maintenance contracts with major companies such as Corus, Hewdens and Infraco Sub-Surface Ltd (London Underground). It also services cranes all over the world, including the Far East, the Middle East and the Caribbean. It recently won a large maintenance contract with Alstom to maintain cranes in Taiwan.

Morris has a training Institute which is a dedicated division, offering a comprehensive range of job-specific training in all areas of crane operation, material handling, maintenance and inspection, automated warehousing, health and safety topics and interpersonal skills development programmes.