Our History

In 1973, Sparrows became the first contractor to send specialist crane operators and maintainers to work in the UK’s fledgling North Sea oil and gas industry.

Sparrows grew in stature and experience, becoming the standard-bearer for safety and efficiency in the industry. It developed new services – such as integrated crane management – during the 1980s and 1990s before, in 2000, beginning a committed programme of international development.

By 2005, overseas offshore crane services and manufacturing businesses had been established in the Middle East, USA, Caspian, Australia and Nigeria. Since 2005, further offshore crane service and engineering centres have been established in Indonesia, Brazil, Angola, the Netherlands, India and Singapore.

At the same time, Sparrows has grown its portfolio of services to encompass cable and pipe laying systems design, supply and rental (through the acquisition of Baricon Systems) and specialist hydraulic systems engineering design, supply and services through the acquisition of Aberdeen Hydraulics – both now fully-integrated and fast-growing members of the group.

The Sparrows family of people – upon whom we rely for the quality of everything we do – has grown from a handful in the mid 1970s to 600 by the year 2000 and now to over 1500 people.