Metrode Products, the UK manufacturer of alloyed welding consumables, will celebrate its 40th anniversary this month. Overseas business for this family-owned company has expanded in the last decade, fostered by close partnerships with a network of dedicated distributors. There are Metrode offices in China, Singapore and France, and a subsidiary company in the Netherlands serving Benelux and Germany. At the same time, Metrode has maintained, and in some areas increased, its share of the alloyed welding consumables market in the UK, despite fierce pressure from overseas manufacturers.
An innovative research programme has led to the regular introduction of new products, most notably a range of flux cored wires, several of which are unique, and designed for niche markets such as power (including hydroelectric) generation, offshore oil and gas, and the petrochemical industry. It is a far cry from the small business unit in which Bill Marshall, supported by James Morton, produced his first electrodes to join the new materials needed in the 1960s for the burgeoning petrochemical industry. The company now owns plant and offices on a two-acre site in Chertsey, Surrey. But the historical link to 1963 continues in the sons of the founders – Adam Marshall (Chief Chemist) and Alex Morton (Managing Director).
