Deswik, the leading Australian mining software developer, has furthered its overseas expansion by acquiring a minority stake in its longstanding Brazilian reseller partner MCB Services and Minerals, the company announced.

“MCB is a like-minded company with an approach to servicing the mining industry that’s very similar to our own,” said Deswik managing director, Matt Chilcott. “Our culture and values are extremely compatible. That’s why we’ve worked together so successfully for such a long time. We couldn’t find a better partner and we’re delighted to be able to formalize our relationship in this way.”

Founded in 2007, Deswik has become one of the Australian ICT industry’s biggest export success stories. A leading developer of specialist solutions covering all aspects of mine planning, Deswik employs a team of 300 across thirteen offices worldwide and derives more than 70 percent of its revenue from overseas markets. Its flagship suite of products, Deswik.CAD, Deswik.Sched, Deswik.LHS and Deswik. MDM, are used by miners on six continents, across the underground metals, open pit metals, open cut coal and underground coal sectors.

MCB, which will now be rebranded as Deswik Brazil, has been Deswik’s exclusive reseller partner in Brazil since 2012. Established in 2006 in Belo Horizonte, it sells mining software and services to local customers including Nexa, Vale,  Anglo Gold Ashanti, Yamana, Kinross and many others.

Deswik is expanding its presence across South America and opened offices in Chile and Peru in 2015 and 2018 respectively. Sales across the continent accounted for 27 per cent of Deswik’s turnover in 2018.

Chilcott noted that Brazil was a key growth market which contributed eight percent of Deswik’s global software turnover in 2018, so acquiring a stake in MCB cements Deswik’s presence in the country and allows it to offer local clients enhanced technical support and greater input into the Deswik development and roadmap process.

“Brazil is a large and mature market and we think we’ve only just scratched the surface in terms of demand,” he says. “We’re excited about working with the MCB team to help more customers in the region experience the productivity and efficiency gains the Deswik suite of products can deliver.”

MCB’s senior management, Mauro Servulo, Cesar Machado and Francisco Bittencourt, will remain at the helm of Deswik Brazil and local customers will continue to receive expert support from the company’s 35-strong team of geology and mine engineering consultants.

“We knew from day one that this would be a very productive partnership as both companies always had the same idea to not only sell a product but also to innovate and help the customer solving their problems,” Servulo says. “With the help of Deswik we grew from 6 to 35 people within 6 years. We are really excited about the future, now that we have been brought to Deswik’s structure.”

Deswik partner manager Patrick Doig attributed its strong partnership with MCB to like-minded management, long-term vision and similar company culture and noted these as key factors to the company’s rapid growth in Brazil over the past eight years.

“Fostering a healthy ecosystem of partners has allowed us to extend the reach of our software internationally and provide customers with a consistent ‘Deswik experience’ wherever they are in the world,” Doig said.

In addition to its own 11 offices across Australia, North and South America, Canada, Africa and Europe, Deswik works with a select group of technology, education, reseller and certified partners. For more information, visit www.deswik.com.