Venture capital was the alternative chosen to support the birth in 2014 of Metal Group, dedicated to machining parts and smelting
Being an entrepreneur is not an easy task. Besides, ensure that your project can be developed and consolidated in the business landscape, much less. In addition to, among other things, talent, effort or sacrifice, a great dose of enthusiasm and motivation should never be lacking in order not to decline, especially during difficult moments that any company goes through over the years. Antonio Román knows a lot about that. He manages Metal Group, which is composed of two companies, Metal Performers and Metal Smelting.
XXV Anniversary
The entrepreneurial adventure began in 1991 with Metal Performers, so this coming October they will celebrate 25 years of its founding. A long history that deserves recognition for a work well done. They have gone through many phases, most of them growing ones, although the crisis also affected the company. For approximately two years, they had to turn to employment regulation and, aware that their clients had no expectations of growth, they did not hesitate to bet big. They took advantage of the economic situation to make an important leap. “We decided to invest in new businesses, look for new opportunities. It is not easy, but this time the circumstances arose and it went well. We started in 2011 by buying a first company and, in 2013, we acquired the last one. Right now, we are close to 300 employees and we have gone from a turnover of 12 million euros to 42”.
Economic crisis
But this situation does not make him forget the difficult times they went through in 2008. “It was very hard for us. We had to cut the workforce in half, from 110 people we went down to 56. Fortunately, we were financially stable and with good working relations and, after six months, we gradually recovered our staff”.
Right at this moment of survival, they looked for institutional support to face the investment that required the purchase of new companies that would give ‘added value’ to what they were doing. Venture capital was the alternative chosen for a capital increase. With the help of Seed Capital Bizkaia and Spri, they succeeded. In 2014, the companies were merged and the Metal Group was created, dedicated to machining parts and smelting. “It helped us a lot to make the investment. It was an ambitious but risky project and the evaluation was tough, but we got the institutional backing” for a three-year management plan that they have managed to fulfil. “It was a conservative plan because it had to be realistic and we have exceeded it by 35%. It is very important to make management plans, review them continuously and not hesitate to change them if necessary”.
Management plan 2016-2018
After these last years, 2016 is a year of transition for the company. Its main objective is to seek stability, since the results of investments usually arrive three or four years after they have been made, a period in which it is really known if the investment is paying off. “The best thing – Antonio does not doubt – is that we keep alive and we do what we wanted to do. It must be taken into account that in our management plan we started from not selling anything internationally and, at the moment, our exports reach the sale of 69% of first equipment worldwide”.
The parts they manufacture are focused on sectors such as automotive, wind power or power generation, among others. “It seems we are very attractive because we compete with countries with very low costs”, adds Antonio, who assures that, at the moment, they are complying with the forecasts of the current management plan drawn up for two years from now, until 2018. The challenges are to grow a 30% more in turnover, adjust expenses and control indebtedness, as well as promote trade with other countries, such as Mexico, Brazil or Argentina. “All these things will enable us to make new investments. In fact, we are already thinking about those for the next few years. We are going to keep doing things; we are not going to accommodate”.
