The company began modestly, concentrating on construction finishing, using high quality materials. It quickly formed both contracting and trading operations during the construction boom years in 1980s Egypt, specialising in sourcing quality construction materials. In doing so it looked outside Egypt to European companies in the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, while undertaking lucrative contracts at home, establishing the company as pioneers in the application of ceramic and porcelain  finishes for the construction industry.

METCO embarked on a different trajectory in the 1980s when engineer Khaled El Mikati joined the team as a young and talented entrepreneur, determined to expand and lead the business in a different direction. By applying his engineering skills, the company won a tender in 1986 to supply the  electrical components for 2,000 housing units in the Cairo area, bringing METCO  to a new level within the construction sector. By the end of that decade, under the leadership of Khaled, the company became the main contractor to build the Olympic swimming pool of the African Games, which were held in Cairo in 1990. Bringing the opportunity to fruition, METCO partnered with the largest and oldest German ceramics company, Agrob Buchtal GmbH, founded back in the eighteenth century. They supplied and installed the specialised swimming pool tiles required for that prestigious contract. Having proven the company’s expertise in this specialist area, the company was retained to install all the wall tiles in most of the Cairo Metro Line 2 stations.

By 1990 the specialist expertise of the METCO team began to receive wider recognition in the public, commercial, hospitality and residential sectors. While maintaining its association with Agrob-Buchtal, another milestone was reached when METCO was awarded, through a tendering program, to supply and install the internal and external façade tiles in the newly-built airports in Aswan, Luxor and Hurghada. Through the partnership with Agrob-Buchtal, all the finishing materials were supplied from their factories in Alfter, near Bonn in west  Germany.

That major project opened the door to other important contracts that included several swimming pools in a number of five-star hotels in Cairo and others across the Red Sea in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada. 

By the end of the decade, METCO had expanded their expertise into the natural stone sector. Seeing the huge potential in that area, a new sister company was established with the Al Hassana natural stone factory, producing marble and granite products for finishing application across the construction industry.   

As the twenty-first century dawned the company gained another prestigious commission to install ceramic tiles in the lake of the newly-constructed Grand Library in Alexandria (Bibliotheca  Alexandria).  Building in that success, other commissions were to follow. A contract was signed in 2004 with the American University in Cairo (AUC) to supply and install more than 100,000m² of natural stone for the façades of their new campus in east Cairo.

Subsequently METCO was once awarded to undertake the marble finishing work for the new Terminal 3 at Cairo airport, using granite quarried from Aswan and Mid-Sinai.

During a decade that included the global financial crisis and the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the company decided to consolidate their portfolio and entered new partnerships that would position it as a dominant supplier for the construction industry. Along with Turkish counterparts ORMET, a new company was formed  specialising in high-end office fit-outs and furniture. This led to the company supplying all the office furniture for thirty-eight HSBC branches across Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East.

In 2009 a third partnership had been formed with an Italian company specialising in the supply of wooden doors. This lead to the signing of a contract to produce 1,000 doors for a private developer in the Red Sea region.

In 2010, in collaboration with a group of Egyptian and German interests, METCO became pioneers in the solar energy sector in Egypt and established E-Green, a company focused on solar water heaters. Building on the growth and success of E-Green, the company entered the green lighting sector when Prasino Energy was established as a joint venture with Italian partners, to offer LED smart lighting solutions and smart home systems to Egyptian consumers. Another major contract was awarded in 2012 when the company supplied the biggest park in Cairo – Azhar Park – with LED smart lighting fixtures, and today they are still fully functional, without the need of replacement. The company later secured another agreement to supply the same lighting poles at two major steel factories outside Cairo, with the addition of IOT (Internet of Things) elements integrated into the light poles. Today, Prasino Energy’s portfolio includes providing smart home solutions for apartment blocks and residential schemes, as well as large-scale contracts at airports, sea ports and smart city schemes. 

In 2016 the Egyptian Corps of Engineers commissioned METCO  to supply and implement the main façade of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). This involved cutting-edge technology using the patented KEIL undercut façade fixation system – a process never used before in Egypt.  The Egyptian Corps of Engineers also commissioned further work on various ministerial buildings in the New Administrative Capital as well as eight towers in New Alamein City in the North Coast region of Egypt.

In 2022 METCO has entered its third generation of development as it establishes an inhouse design function. This will ensure that the highest level of quality will be delivered from the start of every project, bringing the group full circle from its modest foundation four decades ago and positioning METCO as a turnkey one-stop-shop operation

The continent of Africa is now the focus for METCO’s future growth, and the company is actively searching for African partners seeking to build Africa’s future in terms of construction and infrastructure projects.  With a portfolio of expertise spanning design, engineering, project management, smart solutions (IOT) and contracting expertise, METCO wants to continue to play  a major role in the emergence of Africa as a global economic force.