F Taylor & Sons was established at Barr Hill Works, Bolton Road in Salford in 1895, eventually expanding into factories in Pendleton and Glazebury. Originally established as a commercial vehicle distributor, the firm became a manufacturer of hydraulic cranes and mine equipment. Taylor's was the first company to produce cranes with a slewing jib and hydraulics. The company's best known product was the 'Jumbo', a snoop-nosed crane. In 1946 F Taylor & Sons designed a Hydracrane based on an ex-Army Morris transport vehicle. The Hydracrane had a 24 h.p petrol engine, five forward gears and a reverse gear, and four-wheel drive. The company's innovation was to add a non-slewing jib with a simple hook raised and lowered by hydraulic rams onto this chassis. In 1959, Steels Engineering Products took over F Taylor & Sons, and later in the same year was incorporated into Coles Cranes.

Alan Taylor was an engineer born into the family behind the F Taylor & Sons (Manchester). Taylor joined the family business after the Second World War, aged 21. After the sale of the company to Steels Engineering Products in 1959, Alan Taylor went on to establish other businesses, including Cheswick & Wright and Lathom Engineering, which produced exhaust silencers for many of the British car manufacturers, and the Taylor Business Park, Warrington.