Austin Engineering Limited has announced changes to its senior management structure in an effort to grow its North American business.

Current Chief Operating Officer (COO), Graham Backhouse, has been appointed to the new role of Chief Strategy Officer. The role will primarily concentrate on developing a growth strategy for Austin’s North American business where Austin is focused on increasing market share for haul truck trays and, in particular, mining buckets, following the company’s acquisition of Australia-based Mainetec in 2022.

In the last 18 months, following several operational changes, Austin’s North American business has seen much-improved EBITDA margins, which are now at record levels, Austin said. The North American order book has nearly doubled since a similar period last year, further reflecting the success of those operations and highlighting the potential in this region.

Austin’s central North American hub is located in Casper, Wyoming. It is a large manufacturing facility supported by multiple final assembly partnerships. North America is a major global market for mining equipment and Austin sees the potential for further substantial revenue growth across its existing equipment offering, plus Mainetec’s products, including in its high-value dipper bucket products.

Vincent D’Rozario has been appointed as the company’s COO. He will continue to drive the Austin 2.0 growth strategy across the business and further embed the operating model that has seen substantial increases in delivered margins and order book growth across the business, the company says.

D’Rozario has held a number of executive positions and senior roles in a diverse range of sectors including engineering, commercial aviation, major project delivery, and environmental and waste management solutions. Most recently he was the Regional Managing Director APAC for CHC Helicopters, overseeing services to mining and energy companies and State and Federal Government entities. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of ASX-listed The Environmental Group, which provides waste and environmental solutions to the resources, health and heavy industry sectors.

Both appointments are effective January 20, 2023.

Austin CEO and Managing Director, David Singleton, said: “We are very pleased to strengthen the capabilities of our executive team with these two appointments, which will drive the next and substantial phase of our growth plan. We have made big strides across all business units over the last year and a half, with focused attention on our Australian and Indonesian businesses. We are very pleased to appoint Graham to develop and roll out a new growth strategy in North America. It is our second biggest market, and we are seeing substantially improved profitability and growth opportunity ahead. Central to that focus will be deploying more products developed in Australia into that region.

“We warmly welcome Vincent to the team as our new Chief Operating Officer. Vincent brings added capability to Austin through his diverse range of international experience in growing companies. We look forward to his contribution to Austin as we continue to grow our global business.”