October 19, 2021

SMW Group farewells two founding Directors

October 2021 marks a milestone for SMW Group - the retirement of two of our original Directors. Scott Stevens founded Stevens’ Mobile Welding in 2001, which grew into Servicing, Maintenance and Welding.This became SMW Group in 2010, when Frank Humphreys and Jack Trenaman, CEO, built on a long association at several companies before joining Scott Stevens to create SMW Group.

Scott Stevens

In February, Scott Stevens retired from the day-to-day of operations at SMW Group. As the Founding Director of SMW Group, Scott has had an enormous impact on the business, our culture and our clients.

The very early days of SMW Group were literally dependent on Scott - as a one-man mobile welding business servicing the Bowen Basin. Through the boom times of the early 2000s, this business grew and expanded, moving into a premises in Rockhampton’s Wharf St, and then out to the current Parkhurst location.

Scott’s vision and good-natured approach to building relationships with clients made SMW Group what it is today. From one end of the Bowen Basin to the other, there wouldn’t be many places that Scott hasn’t been!

Even as SMW Group became a larger company and even today’s listed company, Scott was most comfortable in the workshop with our staff, developing the next generation of tradespeople and contributing to our continual focus on innovation - thinking about how to solve the problems that our clients encountered every day.

 

Frank Humphreys

In October, Frank Humphreys, our Chief Operating Officer, started a very well-earned retirement, to spend time with his family (and get to the fishing spots of his dreams). 

Frank’s contribution to SMW Group has been, in a word, tireless. Moving our business forward has always been his top priority. Our people and our customers genuinely relied on Frank to always be there, and as a true leader does, he was always the last man standing with Jack and Scott wherever the business led.

Frank is a very well-known and respected leader in Central Queensland’s coal and cement industries. He continually looked for new process improvement ideas in our workshops. SMW Group’s culture of innovation and improvement was established with efforts like these, resulting in better business and happier employees as a result.

Looking back, looking forward

As a team, the Directors steered SMW Group to some of our biggest milestones: from taking out the inaugural Bowen Basin Mining Club Contractor of the Year Award for rebuilding and transporting whole 797B trays (an Australian first) to pioneering the fabrication of the world’s first Surf Lakes wave pool build. 

Another huge first was SMW Group becoming the first publicly listed business in Rockhampton and Mackay in 2020. Another particularly fond memory is being a member of the famous “Anti Bob Brown Coal Rally” in Clermont– and the list could go on.

Our Directors were also instrumental in bringing SMW Group’s Ultrahaul heavy haulage trays to market. SMW Group is now starting to realise these product’s values and potential for future diversity and productivity.

We know all of our colleagues and customers, both past and present, will join with Jack and the whole team to thank Frank and Scott for their major contributions to the industry and particularly to SMW Group.

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