Jennmar will aggressively pursue expansion opportunities in Australia over the next few years, visiting American president Frank Calandra has told ILN.
The company, through its subsidiary Jennmar Australia, will aim to expand the range of products sold in Australia, and increase the geographic scope of its activities in the country.
"As our customer demands expand we will increase and add different facilities in different parts of Australia to satisfy the customer's needs," Calandra said. The Jennmar chief said his vision was to offer a "complete hardware store" for mines out of regionally based centres which would also provide after sales services. While coal industry sales would remain Jennmar's bread and butter, the company also plans to push into the metalliferous mining sector, particularly in WA.
"We're going to be an all services-type manufacturer for all types of mining and construction," Calandra said. "This will be a five-year project."
He said Australian mines could expect a much greater involvement from Jenmar in the design and engineering of specialised products for site specific applications. Some of the R&D currently done in the US would be transferred to the Australian manufacturing arm and would be combined with Australian technologies.
Jennmar has five manufacturing plants in the USA. Jennmar Australia's plant in Sydney produces a wide range of strata control products for the local market. The company also uses sophisticated computer software to analyse client mine data and devise customised strata support plans to suit specific mine conditions and requirements.
