JAWS is a privately-owned Australian company that designs and manufactures earthmoving equipment and attachments for the mining, construction and material handling industries.
Started by father and son Mike and Barry Koster in 1972, the business has steadily grown with an increased workforce and a quest for new revenue streams such as repair work in the earthmoving industry. During its nearly 50-year history, there has been some important milestones along the way. It wasn’t until the 1980s, as it moved into the bucket and attachment market for construction and mining, that the sub-brand name JAWS became commonly known.
From humble beginnings this Queensland-based company now employs more than 120 staff, with a stronghold across Perth, Mackay and the Hunter Valley, and an increasing global footprint with the export of OEM parts worldwide. Incredibly, the company’s export sales now equal its national figures. JAWS has also added several new complementary products to its portfolio, including tyre handlers, high production coal dozer blades, water tank modules, service modules, truck bodies, mining buckets, face shovels and a vast array of construction and mining class equipment.
The continued successful evolution of JAWS can be attributed to many things: innovative leadership, entering new markets at the right time; viable service offerings; and the ability to rely on external providers for gear and support.
“As an industry leader, we depend on quality machine tools and that’s the reason why we use Okuma,” says Barry Koster. “We’ve used eight machines across 30 years and they’re yet to fail us. We’re excited to introduce our new acquisition, two Okuma LB3000 EXII model CNC lathes.”
For JAWS Operations Manager Adam France, Okuma delivers a degree of reliability that supports his company’s custom engineering and allows for the facilitation of global customers.
“The primary advantage of Okuma is the efficient production planning to optimise the return on investment,” he explains. “Okuma really is the best product, with best practice and support readily available. They help get the best out of our staff, factory and for our products. With Okuma it’s a turnkey solution – from the procurement process, combining both machine tools and JAWS CADCAM part models, to simulating machine set-up and cycles.”
JAWS has a continual program to invest in new technologies, facilities, R&D and the acquisition of companies to broaden and complement its product range. Okuma is seen as an integral part of the company going forward, as its quality is guaranteed and its customer service is second to none.