McLanahan finishes 2018 on a high with the official opening of new assembly facility
Written by: Jodi Thornton
With over 120 guests in attendance, the event celebrated not only recent events but the company’s long history in Australia well before an office was ever established.
Neil Hunt, Managing Director of the Asia-Pacific region opened the event and welcomed guests who had travelled far and wide to make it for the day. Neil went on to describe the initial operations in Australia, and how McLanahan has transitioned into a fully self-sustaining manufacturer.
“...In the early years, we purchased equipment directly from our parent company, McLanahan US and the equipment came in at that time, fully-assembled, and went out to the customers, already test-run, and ready to be installed” says Neil.
Realising that this business model wasn’t suitable for Australian customers, Neil and the team developed local manufacturing through trusted local subcontractors and grew that model over time.
Reflecting on the success of this model, Neil recounted “…I think this is our fourth move since the company was first formed in 2003 and each step that we've taken along the way with larger premises we've increased our services and we've increased our customer base, establishing offices in Western Australia and in Mackay, and most recently we have also established an office in China as well to help support the business.”
Tony Cade, CEO of Hunternet took to the stage, where he praised McLanahan and their success in the region, going on to say,
“One of the things that Hunternet has done is to encourage our member companies to invest in diversification and innovation. In this regard, McLanahan are an exemplar organisation. Last night was a very important night - it was a night to recognise excellence in export, the list of countries that McLanahan has exported, is wide and diverse. But apart from that, the presence here in Australia has grown over the years.”
Mike McLanahan, Chairman of the Board and fifth generation family member reflected on the importance of mining to our country and the challenges the organisation faced along the drive toward success in Australia.
“Anything that comes out of the ground we process in one form or another. With now 100 product lines, that provides continuity to your operations. It's been an honour to be a part of this effort and growth here in Australia” Mike goes on to say “we’ve continued to invest and develop here is Australia because we recognise the integrity and honesty with which business is conducted in this country”
Stephen Galilee, CEO of the NSW Minerals Council spoke briefly on the accomplishments made by McLanahan in the region, emphasising that in order to succeed, businesses need to seize opportunities as they arise,
“The Hunter with the best thermal coal deposits in the world, and some pretty good coking coal deposits too. The Hunter with the largest coal infrastructure port at the end of a sophisticated and efficient rail infrastructure system too. The Hunter with its world-class mining workforce and the Hunter with its world-class mining equipment and technology services sector too. As you can see, looking around you, we stand here on the cusp of great opportunity and the vision of this business in locating itself where it is demonstrates that others share the vision of that opportunity as well. So I want to thank you for allowing me to be part of your vision today in a very small way and I want to endorse your vision for the future here in the Hunter because there is a very strong future for our sector and for our region if we seize those opportunities and we should celebrate it when a company is brave enough to stand up and seize those opportunities for itself.”
Sean McLanahan, CEO and sixth generation family member discussed the importance of continued growth and development not only in the Hunter Valley region, but through maximising local opportunities, McLanahan can ultimately expand domestically and internationally in the mining sector.
“There is no question that the Australian Group provides us a centre of excellence and our goal with this is to leverage that going forward. That's why this facility is so critical for us, the location is critical as we look to have this group, this leadership group develop beyond just Australia, beyond just Asia Pac and really, as a global supplier of equipment.”
Sean went on to praise the McLanahan team, stating that all successes so far (and future successes) are only possible because of the people,
, “…we've got great equipment (in here) and we provide great equipment but none of it comes without the people. If you don't have the people, it doesn't matter how great the tools are, it doesn't matter how great the building is - it just doesn't matter.”
Sean continued to build on that statement by reinforcing McLanahan’s unwavering commitment to the customer,
, “Our customers rely upon those relationships, they rely upon us to provide service to them, we're very proud of the way we do it…” “… (McLanahan Australia) has built upon that legacy of never walking away from a customer - it's easy to do, it's hard to stay.”
The event concluded with a tour of the workshop, where invited guests had the opportunity to view equipment currently being in various phases of final assembly. These included a Rotary Coal Breaker for a Bowen Basin mine, a Rotary Scrubber / Trommel Screen ready for shipment to South Australia, a Triple Roll Crusher for a new miner in Queensland, a number of crusher refurbishments for NSW customers and a rotable Feeder-Breaker pick roll ready for shipment to Indonesia.
… (McLanahan Australia) has built upon that legacy of never walking away from a customer - it's easy to do, it's hard to stay.
