COMPANY PROFILE

TRULY UNSTOPPABLE: NATIONAL GROUP CELEBRATES ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY

CUSTOMER FOCUS DEFINES ITS PROUD HISTORY, BUT THE COMPANY SAYS THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

When asked to reflect on National Group’s 25th anniversary, chief executive officer and managing director Mark Ackroyd is as interested in the future as he is in the past. He sees this milestone as the start of National Group’s next growth phase – and the new chapter in a remarkable journey.

Ackroyd founded National Group in 1997. He used his life savings to start the business with a single bulldozer. He risked everything.

Today, National Group owns one of Australia’s largest and most modern fleets of earthmoving equipment, used by some of the world’s biggest mining companies.

National Group ranks in the top 50 privately owned companies in Queensland in term of revenue and the top 300 in Australia. A number of contract wins have seen the company double in size in the past three years – it now has more than 220 employees nationwide and plans to add another 100 within 12 months.

National Group has emerged as one of Australia’s major private companies, and Ackroyd as one of its prominent entrepreneurs. As National Group turned 25 in May, it has much to celebrate.

However, Ackroyd deflects plaudits. He prefers to talk about the growth of National Group staff over the past 25 years; the teamwork, camaraderie and organisation culture; and the long-term client relationships.

Most of all, he loves talking about mining.

Ackroyd is especially proud of National Group’s expanding focus on corporate social responsibility. Helping the local footy club in a mining town, for example, is about the company supporting communities in which its people live.

For Ackroyd, business is simple. It starts with having good people who understand what clients want, and who will work harder, smarter and faster to deliver it. He wants people who have high integrity, are there for the long haul, and who are genuinely customer-centric.

Ackroyd himself has been known to hand-deliver Christmas gifts to clients to thank them for their support, often travelling to a remote mine site from National Group’s Gold Coast headquarters.

“I love visiting clients on-site,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to see their operation and listen to how things are going.”

Ackroyd still gets a kick out of seeing National Group equipment used up close and personal. He understands the need to experience the mining sector, to see, hear and feel how the industry works.

Ackroyd’s optimism is reflected in National Group’s “unstoppable” motto which, for him, is more than a marketing slogan. It’s about solving problems for clients in all conditions, National Group achieving sustainable growth in good and bad mining cycles and, perhaps most of all, it’s about the drive to achieve.

CEO AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, MARK ACKROYD.

NATIONAL GROUP’S CAT 785 WATER CART AT SOLOMON MINE, WA.

Overcoming challenges National Group hasn’t always been unstoppable. Like most entrepreneurial ventures, the business has had challenges. The cyclical nature of mining activity has seen many companies come unstuck over the years.

Ackroyd, too, has had challenges. As an eight-year-old, he was paid to wash vehicles at maintenance yards in Maitland, NSW. As a young teenager, Ackroyd drove rollers and loaders on construction projects – something unheard of today.

You could say Ackroyd was born into a life of heavy equipment. His father worked in civil construction and trucking and his son expected to do the same. The late-80s saw Ackroyd leave school in Year 10 to start a diesel-mechanic apprenticeship, working on Kenworth trucks.

Business beckoned and Ackroyd knew he wanted to work for himself from the very beginning. He dreamed of building things. He’d been around maintenance yards, trucking depots and roadworks all his life, and the next step was turning those skills into a business.

For a time, Ackroyd bought old equipment, and reconditioned and sold it.

“It was a stressful part of my life,” he said. “I was buying and selling stuff on consignment. Everything extra I earned was spent on equipment.

“I worked 80–90-hour weeks and barely slept at times.”

By 2000, Ackroyd had a bulldozer and National Group’s first significant contract at Cadia’s gold mine in NSW. The business worked out of a small shed in Tomago in the NSW Hunter Region, later moving to nearby Thornton in Maitland.

Ackroyd saw opportunities in Queensland coal. China’s emergence was boosting commodities demand and new coal projects were forming in Central Queensland.

National Group opened a Brisbane office in 2011 and had a large fleet of equipment for hire.

“We had a positive view on coal and Queensland mining generally,” Ackroyd said. “We knew National Group needed a strong Queensland focus.”

In the days when Australia’s mining boom was in full swing, more capital was being raised to discover and produce coal, providing a tailwind for National Group to expand.

When the mining downturn began around 2012, however, equipment demand contracted. Many mining-services companies struggled.

Perseverance, resilience and self-belief allowed National Group to bounce back strongly.

“Our strategy changed as we came out the other side of the downturn,” Ackroyd said. “Our goal

MARK ACKROYD (LEFT) AT BMA’S PEAK DOWNS MINE, QLD.

NATIONAL GROUP’S LIEBHERR R 996 B EXCAVATOR AT CHRISTMAS CREEK MINE, WA. was to develop our fleet on a much greater scale.

“We wanted the best equipment from the best suppliers. We bought larger machines to work at larger projects for larger clients. Everything went up several notches.”

As other equipment providers took a conservative approach, Ackroyd did the opposite.

“Refreshing and expanding the fleet gave us an advantage,” he said. “We won contracts, expanded our client base and quickly got back a lot of momentum.”

The next few years saw the company open workshops in Emerald, Nebo, Blackwater and Yatala in Queensland. It added a Toowoomba engine-repair and components facility.

Diversification As National Group won contracts with Tier 1 miners, Ackroyd built a portfolio of companies.

The trucking business was an example. As more companies used National Group’s haulage services, National Heavy Haulage was born. It now has a fleet of Kenworth trucks and Drake trailers, and is adding more.

As companies used National Group to buy and sell equipment, National Machinery Xchange was formed. So too were National Drilling Services, International Global Logistics and National Resourcing Services.

Nine companies now sit under the National Group banner, providing clients with a unique end-to-end service.

“There was never any great strategy to have a collection of companies,” Ackroyd said.

“More clients were tapping National Group’s expertise across a wider range of services. It made sense to form companies that could specialise in a particular area and work with each other across the group.

“We could arrange shipping to import equipment for a client, get it through customs, pick it up at the dock and use one of our trucks to get it to the mine. Our people could then assemble and maintain the equipment, and another National Group business could sell or dispose of it at the end of its life.”

In early 2019, National Group acquired Wolff Mining, a leading Toowoomba-based provider of technology solutions. The acquisition positioned National Group at the forefront of developments in autonomous bulldozers.

Geographic diversification was another focus. National Group turned its sights out west, winning contracts with Fortescue Metals Group, Rio Tinto and other miners in WA.

National Group home state of NSW was another priority. The company continued to supply equipment to coal projects in the Hunter Valley and in 2021 achieved a significant contract when Newcrest Mining signed on for the supply of fully-maintained mobile mining equipment at its Cadia mine in Central Western NSW.

Today, National Group’s operations are spread evenly across NSW, WA and Queensland. The company’s decision to focus on Tier 1 miners has also paid off, with these companies making up 80 per cent of its revenue in 2020–21.

“We’re far more diversified these days across services, locations and commodities,” Ackroyd said. “A larger client base and more mining sites further spread our operations.

“Diversification is the key to delivering sustainable, consistent growth.”

Strong foundations Rapid growth brought new challenges, the need for enhanced systems, structures and processes chief among them.

“As companies become more corporatised, it’s easy to lose sight of what got you there in the first place,” Ackroyd said. “For National Group, it’s always been our understanding of customers’ needs and being responsive. We’ve worked hard to find the right balance between systems that help control and minimise risk, while maintaining the entrepreneurial dynamism of a private company.”

National Group has implemented a range of systems and controls. In 2016, it formed a four-member board with two independent nonexecutive directors.

The company also invested in technology, upgraded or expanded its compliance policies, and implemented additional riskmanagement and financial controls. Everything was about building foundations to support a larger business.

Strong systems are vital as National Group’s workforce rapidly expands, existing contracts ramp up and new contracts are won.

National Group launched an apprenticeship program in 2020 because it wanted to develop maintenance staff in the ‘National way’ and prepare for a looming shortage of diesel mechanics. Five apprentices have since joined.

Diversity is another priority. In a male-dominated industry, National Group wants to recruit more female apprentices and other women to technical or management roles – and support them in expanding their career.

Corporate social responsibility is another part of National Group’s future. The company wants to do more to support sporting clubs, industry events and charities – particularly those in the regions.

The environment also features strongly in the future. In many respects, the company’s environmental scorecard is determined by stakeholders; manufacturers decide the environmental efficiency of the equipment and customers choose what to use, and when.

“Our job is to supply the most energy-efficient equipment,” Ackroyd said. “We’ve done that for a long time because we buy the latest equipment from the top manufacturers. Having a young, state-of-the-art fleet is better for the environment.”

Ackroyd expects coal’s share of National Group revenue to decline gradually over time as the world moves to net-zero carbon emissions. He wants to do more work in commodities, such as nickel, that support growth in electric vehicles.

As Ackroyd looks back on National Group’s quarter of a century, he said the biggest challenge was staying close to customers.

“I want National Group to remain a highly customer-focused company, from the most junior employee to my job and the board,” he said. “I want everybody to stay on the same page about the need to always put customers first.

“If we continue to do that, the next 25 years for National Group will be even better.” AM

NATIONAL HEAVY HAULAGE TRANSPORTING THE BODY OF A T 282 C DUMP TRUCK.