The road the company has travelled has been marked with changes, both within the organisation and within the longwall industry. Despite the industry challenges, the company says it has accomplished a great deal in a short time frame.

In the 1990s Longwall Associates officially entered the niche market of OEM longwall conveyors competing alongside larger companies.

Although the name Longwall Associates was new, the executive management team, engineering, sales and manufacturing staff had been designing and manufacturing OEM and rebuilt conveyors for up to 20 years.

Despite being a new company in a volatile playing field, the small company remained focused on winning OEM orders, which would demonstrate the advantages of its equipment. Its persistence paid off as it won orders for five complete armoured face conveyor/beam stage loader packages within the first year and a half.

The Virginia-headquartered firm won its first longwall face conveyor contracts in 1997.

The company said that looking back, in the beginning there were people who doubted its capabilities and longevity in the market. But the first OEM orders the company received were a huge jump off the starting blocks and it now has a rapidly growing US market share and international installations.

Longwall Associates has completed six expansions at its Virginia facility, a plant in Australia, the recent opening of a plant in Utah and future expansions underway.

In terms of market share, the company has gone from zero AFC/BSL installations to challenging for the lead. Additionally, the company became the leader of low seam solutions with more low seam installations that any other manufacturer in the US in 2006. And later this year the company will hit another milestone shipping its 7000th line pan.

The company has also expanded into the highwall sector with its surface division, American Highwall Systems.

“Rather than develop a highwall mining system comparable to those currently available, our ambition was to design a revolutionary highwall system by integrating cutting-edge innovations like temposonics, mapping and machine positioning systems as standard features on our equipment,” the company said.

The highwall miner development was an elaborate process that spanned several years.

With its flagship machine in production since mid-2006, and orders for additional systems in 2007, the highwall division appears to be on the same track as the company’s longwall division.

The company says it is the practice of listening to customers that has aided in its growth. Engineering manager Dennis Heninger credited customer involvement, from the receipt of the order throughout the life of the equipment, for production success as well.

“It is our customers’ input that aids in our design of high production equipment to uniquely suit their requirements. They further that relationship with the stellar operations.”

While an international player, Longwall Associates has still kept a family touch to its operations. The company’s founder, Tony Campbell, is still on board as the CEO but the operation side is now managed by his son, Paul, who is the president, along with daughter Shelley and son Lance.

In terms of the future of Longwall Associates, the company says it has weathered the worst: going from a start-up company to a trusted source of longwall conveyors in a volatile industry. The overall aim of the company is to rank number one in its equipment lines.