FROM a job on Long Lane at Aintree Prison to putting the finishing touches on the iconic Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Velodrome, it’s fair to say that supervisor Jimmy Napier has been there, seen it and got the medals to say he has.
Nearly 30 years of service to John Sutch and John Sutch Cranes says it all about one of the key operators in the business and one of the longest standing.
Jimmy, 51, was a young digger and excavator driver at a site at Aintree Prison when he first clapped eyes on the blue and yellow of John Sutch Cranes. The Crosby lad was zooming around the prison site as a 360 operator when a chance meeting with the cranedriver changed everything.
“I was working at the prison, just doing my job and I started watching the crane in operation,” he said.
“I was fascinated by it and really keen to see what it was like. The lad driving the crane asked me if I wanted a go! This was 30 years ago and obviously times have changed, butthat was how it started for me. I had a go in a safe area. I was a decent 360driver and I backed myself to do it.
“It’s a different feelingbut after a while I just got used to it and it felt like home to me.”
Two days later, in true John Sutch fashion, Jimmy was reporting to the depot in Bootle at the weekend to meet John and Michael Sutch. And four weeks later he had his tickets and was ‘cards in’ with the business.
It was a career changing moment for Jimmy, who admitted everything ‘felt right’ and just slotted into place for him.
“John was great and he offered me the opportunity there and then,” Jimmy added.
“I remember we had about 7 or 8 cranes at the time and it was a very different business to the one we work in now. But one thing has remained and that’s the people.
“We have great people here. Family lads who have passed the knowledge from one to another and another. I’m old school and you can’t beat that. I can have a laugh and a joke, but it’s serious business when it’s out on site. I like to work hard and crack on with the job and get it done – make sure everything is done safely and right– but let’s get the job done.”
It’s a saying thatflows through the business. John Sutch Cranes workers ‘get the job done’ andJimmy says that stems from the boss.
“John is no-nonsense,”he said.
“I’ve not worked with him on a job but I know what he’s like and the standards he wants in his business. That’s the bit what sets us apart. We have lads just like him who have worked the ‘John Sutch Way’. Michael, Jason Sutch, Ian Gardner, Carl Lowrie, Frank Miller – all lads that know how the industry works.
“While the paperwork has changed, the way you lift and the old school techniques are still the same as when I started.”
Jimmy operated a300Tonne crane for a long spell in his John Sutch Cranes career. He’s now asupervisor on the other side of the perimeter fence directing traffic andensuring the lifts are successful and the team deliver for the client as awhole.
It’s a job he enjoysafter years behind the wheel of ‘his crane, the 300 Tonner’.
“The 300 Tonner wasthe crane I was sat in the most and I loved it,” Jimmy added.
“But overtime you dolook at things differently. I used to see lads having a laugh and joke out onsite and I’d be in the crane cabin. I didn’t regret it as I enjoyed driving thecrane and lifting, but over time you want to experience different aspects ofthe job.
“Supervisory positionsbecame available and I took them and it’s something that I have really tookto.”
That wasn’t the end ofthe story, Jimmy recalls. A trip down south in 2012 and the small matter of theLondon Olympics Games was another defining moment.
This was when, at theend of the scheme, he passed the keys to his buddy on the same job, Les X.
“We spent months downin London for the Olympics. We weren’t running – we were doing the lifting! Ourjob was to help build the velodrome,’ Jimmy proudly said.
The site, which had amany John Sutch Cranes teams on, was to be a major centrepiece at the 2012 Olympicgames, with the cyclists bagging the most medals.
In total, Team GB wongold medals in 11 sports with eight in cycling, four in rowing and athletics and three in boxing and equestrian, while athletes from 17 sports visited thepodium.
The job saw Jimmy and the team based in London for over 8 weeks, a gold medal for every week –working around the clock to deliver for the client.
He added: “The rate we got through steel there was something else – only second to the Mersey Crossing in Widnes and Runcorn and the new bridge we worked on. That job still sticks in my mind as the job we lifted steel like it was going out of fashion. It was unbelievable.
“The Italians Built it, the Chinese had the machinery and we delivered the cranes. It was full on, but what a job we did.
‘The Olympics isn’t abad job, though. To play a part in building that was special. After the Olympics, I was happy to pass to crane to Les. Les absolutely loves it and is one of the best drivers we have.”
We caught up withJimmy on his way back from Sutton Coldfield, just outside Birmingham. Andbefore that, he was in Scotland on another job. That’s some mileage covered, but that’s the ‘job before the job’, he said.
“One day you could be up the road, the next you could be three hours away. Back when I started I operated locally across the North West but the business is a UK wide one now.Not many people know that, but we service the whole of the country.
“I still love it. I’ve worked on some great jobs. One thing I love is getting to a job and not looking at the spec until you get there. I like the element of surprise and thinking your way through a job. I’ve lifted cars onto hotels, lifted all kinds of stuff and been across the country and back again on all sorts of unusual jobs.”
I still have my tickets and get out in the cranes now and again as well. I’ve been here 30years in November and I would never go anywhere else. I’ve had the chance to but why would I want to. John is great with me and I enjoy being in the business.
“I’ve just driven back from Italy for John, and that shows the trust we have and that’s right across the business.”
