From the Founder

National Groups revs up for 2025

Investment in people and fleet are priorities as company looks to expand client relationships and maintain its strong growth.

Mark Ackroyd is pleased with National Group’s performance in 2024 and excited about its prospects with several contracts expected to be announced this year.

As founder and CEO, Mark has led National Group through significant growth in the past few years and positioned the business for further expansion through increased investment in its people, fleet, technology and systems.

This edition of Unstoppable asked Mark about the company’s progress in 2024 and what National Group stakeholders can expect this year.

Unstoppable: Mark, what was your National Group highlight for 2024?

Mark Ackroyd: Contract extensions with customers, particularly in the Bowen Basin in Queensland. It’s really pleasing when longstanding clients get you to do more work for them and you continue to grow your business with theirs. The relationship between our organisations deepens and it’s a good vote of confidence in the quality of our work and the value that clients place on it.

Unstoppable: Are you surprised by the level of activity in the coal sector?

MA: Not at all. We’ve been a long-term supporter of the coal industry and remain optimistic about its prospects. Exports of Australian metallurgical coal are at a historically elevated level and export volumes are expected to grow over the next five years as new mines ramp up, according to latest Federal Government forecasts. That level of activity matches what we are seeing on the ground. The new government in Queensland is another positive for the coal industry.

Unstoppable: Mark, why is National Group increasing its fleet investment?

MA: It’s partly because of rising demand for our services due to contract wins and extensions. We have several big dozers and new trucks on the way. Longer term, it’s about ensuring our fleet has the latest tier-one equipment and energy-efficient technology. In 2023, we embarked on the largest engine upgrade in our history with Komatsu Australia and Cummins South Pacific for 16 Komatsu 830E haul trucks used at the Lake Lindsay and Oak Park coal mines in the Bowen Basin. The project, which concluded this year, has lowered fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and extended engine life in the trucks. It was a big investment in the engines and the results have exceeded expectation.

Unstoppable: National Group last year announced the largest recruitment campaign in its history. How did that go?

MA: It’s going well, despite a continuing tight labour market in mining services. We recognised a few years ago that National Group would need to substantially increase its workforce, so put several foundations in place to achieve that. We’ve expanded our HR team, streamlined our recruitment processes, doubled the size of our apprenticeship program and recently introduced payment of airfares to attract fly-in, fly-out workers from Brisbane and Cairns. This year we are launching a targeted marketing recruitment campaign to raise awareness of career opportunities at National Group. We’ve added more than 60 full-time employees since June 2024, taking the total to 215 . We expect to have over 300 staff within 12-18 months and are spending a lot of time finding good people who fit our organisation culture and are customer-focused.

Unstoppable: Mark, you touched on the National Group apprenticeship program. How important is that to the company’s long-term strategy?

MA: It’s critical. A few years back, we recognised a growing shortage of diesel mechanics in the mining services industry and that we needed to develop more of our own internally. Through the apprenticeship program, we wanted to leverage the skills and knowledge of our maintenance team and train more diesel mechanics in the ‘National Group way’. I’ve long said National Group has one the best maintenance teams in its field, so it makes sense to draw on that skill. We expect to have at least 18 male and female apprentices in our program by late 2025. A few years ago, we only had a handful. It’s great to see our apprentices develop and go on to build successful long-term careers at National Group.

Unstoppable: What is National Group doing on the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) front in 2025?

MA: ESG is a priority for National Group. With the help of external consultants, we finalised the National Group Sustainability Strategy in late 2022 and have spent the past two years implementing it. This year is about building on that ESG work through environmental initiatives with our fleet and also through an expanded Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. In 2024, we sponsored several mining industry and community sporting events, and mental-health initiatives. We expect to expand our CSR focus in 2025. Safety is another key ESG focus. We achieved some excellent long-term safety milestones at National Group projects in 2024, but take nothing for granted when it comes to safety.

Unstoppable: How is National Heavy Haulage performing?

MA: Our trucking business is going really well. We’ve got four new prime movers and five new trailers on the way, taking the fleet to about 20 trucks. We expect to announce several new contracts for National Heavy Haulage in 2025 and extensions of existing ones. The business continues to go from strength to strength, which is reflected in our investment in new trucks and the recruitment of additional drivers. National Heavy Haulage is good at what it does, provides a specialist skill and has a lot of experience hauling equipment to remote areas and even islands, such as Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria this year.

Unstoppable: Mark, organisation culture is a recurring theme for National Group. How does the company maintain its culture as it grows quickly?

MA: Our culture is everything. National Group’s success has been built on being highly customer-responsive, agile and good to work with. That was true of the business when it started with a single bulldozer in 1997, and is still true today when we have more than 200 staff. As we add many more people to the business this year, we’re doing a lot of work to find the right people, ensure they are a good match with our organisation culture and that they understand and implement our values. We want to back good people who want to grow with our business, take on more responsibility over time, try new things and be part of a close-knit team. Most of all, we want to give our clients the best of both worlds: a founder-led, private company culture that is nimble and responsive, with the resources and systems of a large mining services organisation.

Unstoppable: Mark, as this edition of Unstoppable is written, you are about to personally visit clients at a number of remote mining sites. What does that entail?

MA: I do that every year in December. It’s a good chance for me to meet with clients, visit their mine sites, listen to their needs and identify any areas where we can help them. It’s also a good chance to catch up with National Group staff at remote sites and get a sense of how they are going and if there’s anything more we can do to support them. I always look forward to the trips, spending time with clients and staff, and seeing the mining operations in action.