Murray Engineering has taken another step on the path to becoming one of Australia’s major diversified engineering services groups with completion of the acquisition of Newcastle-based SRO Group.
Established in 2005, SRO grew to become a leading provider of electrical and mechanical services to the mining, power generation, energy and utilities, oil and gas, and transport sectors, with operations in several major mining centres and manufacturing capabilities in China.
Murray bought into SRO in 2015 and now owns 100% of the business. Coincident with the move to outright ownership, Neil Stewardson has been made general manager at SRO. He was previously SRO’s operations manager and has more than 20 years of experience in project and operations management roles, mainly in the New South Wales mining industry.
Richard Ross, now electrical and engineering manager at SRO, previously had senior management roles at NHP Electrical and Heinemann Electric in Victoria.
Murray Engineering managing director Craig Lindsay-Rae said completion of the SRO union was a significant milestone for the group.
“This acquisition enables us to pursue growth on the eastern seaboard through the introduction of our full suite of products and services,” he said.
“The advantages in designing, manufacturing, installing and maintaining projects in-house are being actively pursued by our client base and include the design of electrical switch rooms and pump stations on the east coast that can be built and maintained across Murray Engineering facilities Australia wide.”
Merging of the two leading engineering businesses has produced a range of benefits for clients.
For example, a common specification for motorised pumps produced in Western Australia for delivery in the eastern states has improved cost effective assembly at locations around the country.
“It was always our vision to be able to execute our mechanical, electrical, automation, fabrication and pumping solutions countrywide, and this is now a reality,” Lindsay-Rae said.
Murray Engineering has state-of-the-art workshop complexes at Pinjarra in WA (55,000 square metres) and Newcastle in NSW, and service centres at Kalgoorlie, Mount Isa and Roxby Downs.
The company has been one of the standout performers in the Byrnecut Group, an internationally recognised mining services group, in the past five years.
“The combined capability and scale of Murray-SRO means they are positioned to provide first-tier client companies with a range of advanced electrical and mechanical engineering services and skills,” said Byrnecut Group executive chairman, Steve Coughlan.
“I see tremendous long-term growth prospects for that multi-faceted engineering business, which is already developing across a lot of fronts.”