C O M P A N Y O V E R V I E W
PlantMiner:
The one stop, all-encompa shop for plant & equipmen
How Australia’s largest plant and equipment hire market changing the industry Written by: Stephanie C. Ocano Produced by: Camilo Sanchez
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PLANTMINER
Michael Trusler - winner of Mining Australia’s Young Achiever of the Year
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everything from portable toilets, generators, and air compressors, right up to the largest graders, This is the ideology behind dozers and dump trucks.” PlantMiner—an online portal that Being an all-encompassing oneaims to save time and money for stop shop is the most important procurement officers, estimators and asset to PlantMiner’s success. project managers across Australia when hiring plant equipment. A competitive advantage “We are Australia’s largest In Australia, there was a real need equipment hire market place, for a service that solved the issue we’ve got the most equipment hire of saving the time it took to procure companies and the most individual plant and equipment hire quotes. items of equipment listed in one “The business has flourished place,” said Michael Trusler, CEO of because of that but also because we the company, in a recent interview. deliver a real return on investments “At our portal, clients can hire for our clients,” said Trusler. “They’re 117
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MINING
Dan Wilson
earning a lot of money through the service because they have been making themselves a lot more accessible to searchers of equipment across the country.” Over 70 experienced plant equipment hire experts make up the team at PlantMiner, building the business day in and day out. Their expertise and ability to innovate as a team allows them to recognize a problem within the industry or be given a problem from a client and then procure a solution almost immediately. “The way we innovate with our technology, through our website and
our business development team, we can come up with a new fix within our service to ensure that the problem is solved,” explained Trusler. Expanding into New Zealand PlantMiner’s success is leading them to grow their business and venture into surrounding territories—such as New Zealand. The New Zealand branch of the website went live back in December 2014 and received an immense amount of traction. “We’re already signed up in the marketplace with clients, and a lot of those clients are already w w w. p l a n t m i n e r. c o m . a u
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seeing return on investment,” said Trusler. “Some of these clients have only just paid their subscriptions and they are winning thousands of dollars worth of work already. That’s very exciting and we have guys on the ground over there at the moment who are really just getting out there and educating searchers for 119
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equipment so that they can come to our service and save time and money looking for hire quotes.” New Zealand is a land filled with opportunity for growth as the culture is open to innovation. “It’s a good place to do business—especially for a tech startup,” said Trusler.
MINING
We are Australia’s largest equipment hire market place.” – Michael Trusler, CEO
Overcoming challenges when expanding There are always challenges that come into play when doing business—especially when doing business abroad. It’s a new economy with a unique culture in a remote location that isn’t the easiest to travel to. “An Australian company with w w w. p l a n t m i n e r. c o m . a u
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PLANTMINER an Australian idea operating in New Zealand probably isn’t going to go down that well,” said Trusler. “Having a couple of New Zealanders selling a New Zealand
product is a lot easier and we recognized that quite quickly.” Additionally, in New Zealand, business is much more personal, with face-to-face interaction being
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the norm. Online startups, therefore, have to compensate for this. PlantMiner, however, has found a solution for this. “Something we’re now doing is meeting everyone initially and getting out there on the ground,” said Trusler. “It’s pretty seamless from there, as [clients] seem to know the product and what it’s all about.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
Mining HEADQUARTERS
Hendra, QLD, Australia
New projects on the horizon With expansion still on the mind of Michael Trusler, the United States is next in his line of sight. “We’re doing some investigation into the U.S. at the moment and working on an entrance strategy,” added Trusler. For now, PlantMiner will continue to reinvest into its team, its staff and its culture. “The major investment is into our team and our team culture and ensuring that the product that we have is successful and all of our clients are adequately serviced,” said Trusler. PlantMiner is currently shy of being two years into their five year plan and the company has already exceeded their initial expectations. “We have a couple of exciting things on the horizon,” concluded Trusler.
FOUNDED
2012 EMPLOYEES
70 REVENUE
$50 M PRODUCTS/ SERVICES PlantMiner has over 10,000 searchers from the largest mining, construction and civil companies in Australia searching for and hiring equipment on a regular basis. In addition to this, PlantMiner has signed up 300+ government and council organisations nationwide who have plant and equipment hire needs on a daily basis.
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PLANTMINER 34 Navigator Place Hendra, QLD, Australia, 4011 Tel. 1300 550 434 info@plantminer.com.au www.plantminer.com.au