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Fifty years of continuous operation is a milestone few businesses achieve, but in 2018, Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Deep South Crane finds itself proudly celebrating five decades of success in the crane and rigging industry. It's a story with humble beginnings, fueled by hard work, a close-knit culture, proven product innovation, and a safety-first, customer-focused approach. Although the industry has experienced its share of challenges over the years, Deep South's promise to customers - to bring the best best tools and the right talent to every project, no matter how complex - has never wavered.

Created to meet customer demand

Deep South began in the spring of 1968, when young chemical engineer Camile Landry saw an opportunity to make a go of his own business. He launched the venture as an electrical contracting company, but when Landry's industrial customers began asking to rent his equipment, he saw an even more promising opportunity in the rental trade.

He started small in the early '70s by renting individual pieces of equipment, but when the area market need more rough terrain cranes, he quickly broadened his offerings to satisfy the demand.

"My dad's always been an incredibly hard worker," said Deep South President Mitch Landry. "I think what sets him apart is his passion for this industry and his drive to be the best of the best. He's always been an outside-the-box thinker, coming up with unique solutions to make projects run as smoothly as possible."

Eventually, Camile's drive to improve his company by serving his customers would introduce an imaginative new solution to the global crane world.

Raising the bar for an entire industry

By the 1980s, Camile saw a need in the industry for a new generation of cranes. He envisioned a smaller footprint and tighter tail swing that could be easily transported on current highways and capable of large capacities. With help from German-born Dieter Juergens, one of the crane industry's most inventive engineers, he set out to bring his vision to life.

The first 1,500-ton VersaCrane TC-24000 emerged in 1993, pairing sheer strength with a patented compact design, allowing it to perform in crowded and congested areas and to travel easily and economically. This single, highly configurable unit made efficient work of what seemed impossible - a game-changer for Deep South's customers.

The line features crawler and pedestal cranes from 750-ton to 2,500-ton capacities, and with its small footprint and industry-leading low ground-bearing pressure, VersaCranes execute high-capacity lifts without requiring plant closures or costly foundations to support them. The company has continued to invest in this technology, adding a 1,000-ton VersaCrane crawler crane in 2014 and currently developing future enhancements. A team of certified engineers and craftsmen build all VersaCrane models at Deep South's Baton Rouge manufacturing facility.

A full range of services and equipment

Though it earned a reputation as "the VersaCrane company", Deep South is far more than a specialty operation. Today, it's a comprehensive heavy lift and heavy haul contractor with an equipment portfolio that includes:

• Cranes up to 2,500 tons.
• Transporter, including SPMTs and over-the-road Godlhofers.
• Specialty rigging.
• Jacking and skidding.
• Gantries.
• Steel matting.
• Bridge systems.

Customers trust the company to meet a wide variety of lift and transport needs. In doing so, Deep South has developed expertise in turnkey solutions - projects where equipment must be moved from a fabrication facility or other point of origin and placed into "final slab" position within a plant or other facility. These end-to-end challenges draw on the team's integrated knowledge across all project phases, from logistics and site planning to innovative project engineering and safe, timely execution.

One such project - among the largest team efforts in company history - was helping Marathon Garyville Major Expansion (GME) transform a 200-acre surgarcane field in Garyville, Louisiana, into a state-of-the-art refinery. In a year-long effort involving 125 team members and logging approximately 375,000 man-hours, Deep South transported and set more than 200 pieces of equipment. The company offloaded equipment from ships to pre-dressed barges, unloaded 47 barges, and designed and constructed a 100-foot long rail bridge capable of supporting up to 2,235,000 pounds. At the refinery site, VersaCranes and other high-capacity models lifted and set numerous heavy equipment units, including 500-ton crude columns, a 730-ton vacuum tower and six 800-ton hydrocracker unit reactors. The latter, together with the crane, weighed 5,430,000 pounds.

Deep South regularly serves companies across the construction, oil and gas, petrochemical, paper and other industries, and as those customers' needs have expanded, so has the company's footprint. Its nine offices span from Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky and Indiana to South America, and in 2013, Deep South completed its first international project through DS Americas, a Columbia-based division established for the South American market.