Jonny McMurtry is the Chief Operating Officer at Precisionscreen, an Australian manufacturer of mobile screening, washing, crushing and recycling equipment for the quarrying industry. He observes that the industry is now, more than ever, keen to utilise products efficiently.
How did 2023 look like for Precisionscreen in terms of company performance? What were some key milestones?
Having lost a lot of experience in some of our management figures leaving the company, we decided to focus on Australian manufacturing as opposed to a blend of importing and manufacturing.
I think in the end this ended up being a real blessing for us as a company because we really defined what made us successful as a company and what success will look like for us going forward.
Looking back at our achievements, we can call it a success because we grew as a company, not just in terms of sales and turnover, but also because we were able to retain all our staff and introduce new members to our team. With this base going forward, we think we’re well positioned for the future.
What will be the challenges for the quarrying industry in the next three years?
Access to skilled labour, increasing cost of imported goods and raw materials prices plus running costs of machines including electric power systems and diesel, combined with the quarry industry’s ability to meet or match the demands of materials required for expected increase in infrastructure and development.
How has Precisionscreen set itself up to face those challenges?
We went down a few different avenues. Firstly, we contacted local education facilities that do apprentice training and we offered placements or work experience for some young college students to both introduce new ideas to our business and hopefully new, enthusiastic young adults into our industry. We also tried to develop our new skills and techniques with our existing employees within the team, making sure employees are fully proficient and up to date with the certifications expected for our industry.
To tackle the overseas or imported costs, that ties in with our focus on local manufacturing. We’re not trying to compete against every type of machine in the market. What we’re trying to do is offer alternative solutions which can be manufactured in Brisbane, using local manufacturing and local suppliers for innovative and reliable products and services, fully developed in Brisbane. We are trying to counter-act those increasing costs and the limited supply by offering alternative solutions with the end user in mind.
Have there been changes in market demands from your perspective?
I think demand has really been strong across the industry which is interesting. We’re seeing that across the sector with the residential construction industry and also with a lot of infrastructure being committed to at a state and national level. We’re also seeing some international markets still experience slow shipping times as we continue to move out of COVID and return to pre-COVID areas. think the industry as a whole is trying to maximise production volumes or generate sellable products as effectively as possible. Where in the past a lot of products or resources might have gone to waste, more customers are now trying to get as many materials as they can from their crushing and screening processes for example.
I don’t necessarily think that the expectations or demands from the industry have changed or substantially increased, but I think the customers are expecting more effectiveness and improved efficiencies from their processes.
Going into 2024, what does Precisionscreen aim to achieve?
Our focus for 2024 is new product development with the growth and strength of our company’s culture also being front and center. We are still looking to develop new or diversification of Precisionscreen product lines.
We’re really excited to deliver a tracked secondary and tertiary screening line in 2024. We’ve seen this as a real area that can be serviced among our customers, and after a lot of extensive work, we’re excited to bring this into the market next year and looking forward to seeing how it goes in the market.
Our style of manufacturing is quite unique, particularly on the east coast of Australia. Ultimately, what we’re trying to offer is a quality product that we can stand beside, be proud of and support for years to come, which Australian customers within the Australian market can rely on. •
For more information, visit precisionscreen.com.au