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The company’s main business is in the conveyor maintenance area and it has a suite of services including mechanical and rubber repair.
Convatech director Craig Philpotts said one of the decisions facing the company was whether it would set up its WA base in Perth or the Pilbara region. “We’ll probably have the office in Perth and people in the Pilbara,” he said.
In fact, Convatech has had people in the Pilbara since mid-2003 and has permanent people onsite at Mt Whaleback. Philpotts said he spent about 22 weeks in WA last year overseeing the company’s operations there.
Much of Convatech’s work in WA is in the Pilbara and is a mix of maintenance of systems that have been in place for some 30 years right through to new systems at Port Hedland.
Convatech’s business in the Queensland has been going strongly, with Philpotts expecting that business to exceed its revenue forecasts by 50-60%.
Philpotts said WA and Queensland provided some exciting growth opportunities for Convatech and while the company is not enjoying the same amount of growth in the Hunter Valley, it has secured some strong contracts there.
In the Hunter Valley, the company aligned itself with Rio Tinto. “We control every mine they have in the Hunter,” Philpotts said. “That’s a great contract for us. That was formed some two years ago and they [Rio Tinto] are looking to expand that every day outside the area of traditional conveyor maintenance.”
However, Philpotts admitted the company’s market was not booming as much in New South Wales as it was in Queensland and WA. “It’s the booms in Queensland and WA that have driven our expansion,” he said. “We’ve employed 22 people in Queensland in the past two weeks.”
Indeed, besides its Queensland and WA projects, the company is also looking at an opportunity in Noumea.
“If we weren’t growing in the resources boom, we’d have to be doing something wrong,” Philpotts quipped.
In terms of staff growth, the company has about 150 staff now and there are immediate plans to add another 150 employees.
Australia’s Mining Monthly
