“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs . . .”
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So starts the famous Rudyard Kipling poem If about the importance of holding true to your beliefs.
It’s also a succinct summary of the way that Port Hunter Conveyors owner Carol Campbell has battled the odds over the years to build one of the region’s biggest and best-known conveyor companies.
Ms Campbell grew up in a family that was already in the belt business, but Port Hunter was hers from the start, and it still is, 30 years later.
With a roll-call of customers that includes Port Waratah Coal Services, Glencore, Centennial Coal and Peabody, Port Hunter Conveyors plays a central role in the movement of coal along the world-famous Hunter Valley coal chain.
At its Steel River premises on Friday, staff and a handful of guests were on hand to watch one of Ms Campbell’s friends, John Jenkins of Newcastle Car and Truck Rental, snip a ribbon to open a new $4 million workshop to be known as the Carol Campbell Building.
Former metalworkers union official Mary McGill joined the company in 2013 and although some jobs were lost back then, Port Hunter has since expanded to now have 123 employees, the most it has ever had in its 30 years of business.
The Herald reported the start of the company’s expansion in March 2014, but times have become even tougher in the coal industry since then.
As co-managing director of Port Hunter, Ms McGill said on Friday that the company had expanded into general metal fabrication and the rubber or ceramic lining of materials handling infrastructure such pipes, chutes, hoppers and screens.
“This allows the operator to replace the rubber or ceramic surfaces once they are worn, leaving the metal pipe walls or screen frames intact,” Ms McGill said.
Opening the new factory on Friday, Mr Jenkins said “Carol is a person of passion and empathy and it’s a great honour to open this building in her name”.
Ms McGill said Port Hunter’s fabrication business had moved into the new 50-metre by 50-mete workshop, leaving room to expand the ceramic and rubber business.
After the ceremony, Ms Campbell and Ms McGill handed out $150 gift card Christmas bonuses to each of the employees.
