Reflecting on Giuffre Bros.’ iconic crane business

Todd Proctor and Beau Grassl are the new owners of Giuffre Bros., based in Milwaukee, WI.

After a long and illustrious career in the boom truck and equipment rental business, Dominic Giuffre is taking a break. But the company he built – Milwaukee, WI-based Giuffre Bros. – will be operating business as usual.

In June 2024, employees Todd Proctor and Beau Grassl closed on a deal to purchase the company, carrying on Giuffre’s 60-plus year mission to provide sales, rental, parts and services for customers throughout the greater Midwest region and nationally. Giuffre Bros. has a nationwide inventory of boom trucks, telehandlers and other equipment, including conventional cranes, manlifts and remote control systems.

Respected source

Among the most revered crane companies in the United States, Giuffre Bros. Cranes got its start in the early 1960s. Dominic started driving his family’s dump trucks while he was in high school. When he graduated in 1965, he bought a 5-ton crane. By 1972, he owned and operated more than a dozen pieces of construction equipment, including trucks, cranes and excavators. He handled the company’s administrative tasks as well as worked in the field.

A legend in the industry, Dominic Giuffre has officially retired from the business he started just after finishing high school in the 1960s. He is pictured here with a Boom Truck of the Year award.

But in the early 1970s, Dominic had an idea that would change the scope of the company and the roofing industry in the region. He created a custom equipment package designed especially for roofers, utilizing the boom truck as the crane of choice. Dominic teamed up with Ford Motor Company and Simon-RO Cranes (later Terex Cranes) to build the Dino 1500 crane and mount it on a conventional truck chassis. He would teach his customers how to operate boom trucks onsite. For those companies that hesitated to buy the equipment package outright, he offered bare rentals and crane leasing, a new concept at the time.

Record sales

Today Giuffre Bros. is an authorized dealer for Manitex International and Fassi, logging several years as a number one dealer. In 2017, the company delivered its 5,000th Terex boom truck.

The company sells, rents and services almost every brand of boom truck on the market, and is a service center for Load King.

Proctor, who has been with the company for 32 years, said that in the near future the business will run pretty much the same as always.

Pictured in 2017, Giuffre and several employees stand in front of the 5,000th Terex boom truck delivered by the company.

“I’m sure in the long term some things will change, but not for now,” Proctor said. “It’s a great company, and it’s been a very interesting business to be in through the years.”

Proctor and Grassl are co-owners of the company and will share man agement responsibilities going forward.

“We are excited to carry on the Giuffre Bros. legacy with our loyal customers,” said Grassl.

Giuffre, who is now fully retired, still comes into the office every now and then to visit and catch up. He said that he is now focused on his real estate holdings and other investments.