De Veth doesn’t mind saying he had a rough start with Atlas Copco, which bought the Ingersoll-Rand Drilling Solutions business in 2004 and then set about rebuilding national support for the well-regarded drill line after taking it back from another distributor in Australia.
The former family-owned drilling business, Straitline Australia, bought 32 drills over 25 years, including a dozen IR units. Eighteen-month-old Deveth Drilling Qld has two drills – a DM 25SP and DML-HP – and bright prospects for expansion on Queensland’s coalbed-gas filled coal basins.
“Good equipment and a high level of support is something that the drilling industry OEMs have been lacking in the past,” De Veth said. “OEM support is key to any machine purchase, whether its colour is orange, yellow or green. Product support is what makes the difference between profit and loss.”
“Ingersoll-Rand have, in my view, always been at the forefront of rotary drilling equipment, so it’s no secret why Atlas Copco bought the company. The product sells itself. Anybody in the drilling industry knows the product and its reputation is second to none.”
“But if there is no or little support the product will lose the reputation it has very quickly. Atlas Copco have made some substantial changes within the organisation and the end result is better service all round.”
Significant investment in people and an overhaul of processes within Atlas Copco in Australia during a worldwide downturn for the mining and construction equipment supply sector continues to produce results that have been noted by customers around the country.
“Support from Atlas Copco Australia has been second to none in the past six months,” De Veth said.”
“Many issues have been resolved within the organisation and support from upper management has not been better. The service and customer support side of the business appears to be their main focus and it is starting to show with response times and fitter expertise.”
“Certainly the management commitment to deliver what was promised in the sales proposal of the rotary range of drills has been a major improvement as is the follow-up service on warranty related issues. We have also found major improvements with product support within the service department.”
One example of this product support came after an exhaust valve broke on the company’s DML-HP drill: the valve dropped and hit the piston, putting a slight bend in the con-rod.
“We had no choice with the assistance of Cummins but to replace the head on the drill and run the engine on idle – move the drill so our customer could fire a critical production blast. The engine was then pulled from the drill, the cylinder was repaired and put back in the drill within 36 hours.”
“The drill had 5500 hours on it at that stage and was well out of the OEM’s warranty period.”
“Atlas Copco was notified of the failure and within 24hrs I was told that I would not be out of pocket one cent and everything would be covered under warranty.”
De Veth said this was “unheard of in our industry unless you have a large fleet”.
Deveth Drilling’s owner continues to be impressed with the performance of the Atlas Copco rotary drills, which he says are helping the company win and retain contracts in a competitive market.
“We’re only young and having just two drills in the fleet have built and followed on a reputation to deliver quality, quantity and experience very few can offer,” De Veth said.”
“Our company goal is not to do as most others have done and get as many jobs as possible and grow as fast as possible.”
“We prefer to keep the company small and deliver an unmatched service to our current clients. Our aim over the coming years is to stay small but strong; having myself running the jobs and not leaving the drillers to fend for themselves.”