Bestselling business book, ‘Small giants: Companies that choose to be great instead of big,’ follows the stories of innovative companies that have traded a narrow-minded, fast-growth strategy with a model based on building lasting connections with their clients, employees and the communities they are involved in.
This is the success model that Wollongong-based company, Conveyor Equipment Specialists, has sought to achieve over the past three decades since its establishment.
Conveyor Equipment Specialists’ Director Reginald Appleby junior – whose father Reginald Appleby senior founded the company back in the 1990s – says being customer-driven and providing innovative solutions have enabled this small family-owned business to compete with larger, global competitors.
“When your business focus is on increasing sales and profits, you risk losing your focus on delivering excellence in what you are good at,” he says. “As an Australian manufacturer, we focus on the whole solution package and being a responsive support provider.”
Conveyor Equipment Specialists – as the name suggests – provide material handling solutions such as monorail systems and conveyor belt trackers for mining, quarrying and general industries. Across all of their solutions, the company maintains a focus on providing modular and flexible material handling solutions.
An example of their flexible solutions is the CES monorail trolley system, which can be designed to carry individual loads or cabling across underground mine sites. The low-friction pipe monorail system can be configured flexibly to any straight or bent position and fitted with unique attachments for specific user needs.
Conveyor Equipment Specialists work closely with the CBC Wollongong branch to source products such as motor drives and bearings for their monorails and other equipment. Appleby says this flexibility in designing conveyor solutions enables the customers to adapt the company’s solutions to their existing resources, with the end result being an affordable and yet effective solution.
“We always start with the customer, their issue and what they want to achieve as a solution. We don’t assume an existing product is the solution, we look to identify the outcome needed, then work backwards to develop a process or product to deliver on that outcome.”
