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About Us - Mettis Website

Mission

We design , manufacture and assemble precision forged and machined components at our fully integrated facility in the heart of the UK.

Our vision is not only to be the best at what we do but to continually set new standards in the industry by investing and innovating. That’s why we have been pioneers in our industry for over seventy years.

We are forging the future today.

Dedicated to 
our customers

We’re focused on delivering value for our customers, driving high levels of performance and eliminating waste at every opportunity.

We enable our people to perform at their best at every level and to be:

- Pioneers: Be the future, today. Strive to be the best and lead our industry. Be innovative, creative, agile and responsive to what our customers need. Be first to market with our innovations.

- Professionals: Set the standards in everything we do and work with passion, pace, pride and precision to deliver our customers the highest quality.

- Partners: Collaborate in our teams, between our centres of competence and with our suppliers by engaging, inspiring, involving and respecting each other. Together we achieve more for our customers and deliver total value.

Striving For Excellence

We have vertically integrated centres of competence that work together and innovate to deliver excellence. That’s why we could give you the edge on your current and next generation programmes. Explore everything we do from design and engineering to finishing and testing with our vertical integration. 


We are renowned for our quality, in particular, and work to some of the most exacting standards in the world. We have AS9100 accreditation, NADCAP approval as well as extensive customer approvals.

Leadership Team

Martin Whittaker

Chief Executive Officer

Joined May 2024


40+ years’ experience in global aerospace and defence manufacturing

Rebecca Hardy

Chief People Officer

Joined September 2024


15+ years’ experience in employment law and human resources, most recent 5 years in Aerospace manufacturing

Patrick Adcock

Chief Operating Officer

Joined May 2024


10+ years’ experience predominantly in supply chain and manufacturing operations

Steve Hammell

Chief Financial Officer

Joined December 2024

A Chartered Accountant with 28 years CFO and M&A experience in the industrial manufacturing and technology sectors having previously worked with PwC and Andersen’s

HERITAGE

Trusted to deliver for over 80 years

We’ve been forging the future for over 80 years, winning Queens Awards, developing new materials, investing the latest technologies and contributing to the jet engine when it was still a secret project.

Our pioneering heritage is part of what makes us great today. It’s the foundation on which we build every day as we forge into the next generation and beyond.

Opening the factory with the largest hammer in the world


Mettis Aerospace began back in the 1930s as High Duty Alloys (HDA). HDA came into being through the efforts of Colonel Wallace Charles Devereux. From the late 1920s, Devereux became one of the most important names in British industry.

Work on the HDA Redditch facility began on 18th October 1938 as commissioned by the Colonel who chose Redditch as the most suitable site to expand HDA’s operations. The site was officially opened by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Kingsley Wood, on Wednesday 16th August 1939.

During the ceremony, Sir Kingsley Wood also inaugurated a remarkable piece of machinery – the Erie hammer. It was the largest hammer in the world, manufactured in the USA and shipped to the UK in sections, with a total weight of 455 tonnes.

While opening the site, Sir Kingsley Wood addressed the workers, saying, “I think I can address you as fellow workmen, and I congratulate you on the fine work you are putting up for the country at this critical time. Your work, like mine, is work not for making war, but for preserving peace”.

With the Slough forge suffering extensive bomb damage during the Second World War, the Redditch site took responsibility for the majority of Britain’s aero-engine pistons throughout the duration of the conflict, producing over ten million components, including the V-shaped spars that held the bouncing bombs on the Lancaster bombers during the Dambusters raid.

Consequently, the factory was often a target for the German Luftwaffe who were keen to disable one of the allies’ vital wartime manufacturers. To combat this threat, anti-aircraft guns were stationed up on the hill by the forge mill.

By the end of 1941, HDA’s Redditch site covered nearly 26 acres and employed 1,553 people. With a boom in demand throughout the war, this total eventually exceeded 2,500 with the factory operating six days a week.

During the ceremony, Sir Kingsley Wood also inaugurated a remarkable piece of machinery – the Erie hammer. It was the largest hammer in the world, manufactured in the USA and shipped to the UK in sections, with a total weight of 455 tonnes.

  • 1939

  • 1945

  • 1950

  • 1953

  • 1953

  • 1969

  • 1982

  • 1999

  • Present