Sister publication MiningNews.net understands the company has laid off several staff and is in the process of closing its Brisbane office. When that eventuates it is understood the operations will be managed from the company’s base in Mackay.
It has been a poorly kept secret that Swift was being courted by US mining equipment maker ESCO Corporation.
ESCO’s range of ground-engaging tools has been represented in Australia by Bradken.
Bradken’s licence to sell ESCO products in Australia expires on June 30, 2011.
With the Bradken deal coming to an end, it is clear ESCO wanted to shore up its Australian distribution. Buying Swift would have helped.
While the Swift deal was bubbling, ESCO set up an Australian operation in South Brisbane last year.
That business, ESCO Holdings, is headed by former Central Queensland Mining Supplies general manager mining and one-time Bucyrus International Australian managing director Johan Nienaber.
However, one industry source said he understood the ESCO deal was back on the table and that Swift was up for sale.
Swift is a privately owned company that has been supplying engineering solutions to the Central Queensland mining and agricultural communities for several decades.
It is spread across three businesses – Swift Engineering, Swift Engineering Buckets Bodies and Attachments, and Swift Cooling.
Swift Engineering manufactures CQMS dragline buckets and SEBBA products.
It also refurbishes dragline and excavator buckets, dump truck bodies, excavator boom and sticks and other heavy equipment related to mining or agriculture.
The company counts Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Wesfamers, Thiess, Liebherr, Terex and Hitachi among its customers.
SEBBA, the design and development arm, has been focusing predominantly on dump truck bodies and excavator buckets.
Swift Cooling provides cooling, heat transfer and heat exchange solutions to industry. It was formed in 2008 through the acquisition of Hills Radiators in Mackay and COR Engineered Cooling in Perth.
Despite making several attempts, MNN was unable to contact Swift Group chief executive Mark Gregory for comment.
