Metec Group

Metec Group

Metec Group was assembled in 2006 when Roberto Ginatta combined Metec, Wilson Walton International, and Metec West Africa into a single cathodic-protection supplier. The founding wealth traces back to designing and casting sacrificial anodes — made from zinc and aluminium — that shield offshore hulls and pipelines from saltwater corrosion. The group operates foundries in South Tyneside, UK, and Tunisia, feeding anode systems into four verticals: offshore renewables, offshore oil and gas, drilling and production vessels, and port infrastructure. Its website lists clients across the offshore-wind and oil-services industries. Alongside the core manufacturing business, the Ginatta family acquired the former Fiat plant in Termini Imerese, Sicily, through an affiliate, Blutec, and placed capital as a limited partner in an Invitalia-managed fund. The footprint spans Northern Europe, West Africa, and the Mediterranean. Roberto Ginatta leads the group, with his son Matteo involved in management. An affiliated Estonian entity, Tarmetec, operates under founder Toomas Lepa. Outside the industrial core, the family supports the National Defence Promotion Foundation and the Tartu University Hospital Children’s Foundation. The foundry in South Shields, the Sicilian industrial site, and a Tunisian casting facility form a physical asset base that generates self-funding for further investment activity. Metec’s structure deviates from a conventional family office: it is an operating industrial conglomerate that invests its retained earnings directly into hard assets and external funds. The dual identity — manufacturer and dealmaker — means capital allocation is inseparable from factory-floor decisions, with no formal separation between the operating business and the deployment of its surplus.