Wakefield Metals

• July 1, 1945 | Sigmund Hirschfeld

Sigmund Hirschfeld set up the Metal Import Company (MICO) in a garage in Upper Willis Street, Wellington. He had trained as a coppersmith in Europe and before moving to New Zealand he spent several years selling copper and brass in the Middle East.

His experience and the contacts he made enabled him to source quality products from around the world and he was quick to establish several branches of the Metal Import Co. around the North Island.

• June 5, 1946 | Roy Messenger

He associated with Roy Messenger to set up the Wakefield Metal Co. in Christchurch and the association between MICO and Wakefield was born.

The two companies prospered and grew over the next 35 years. They were among the first in New Zealand to expand into Stainless steel and Aluminium and then later to recognise the potential of plastics in New Zealand industry.

• March 3, 1980 | MICO Wakefield Group

The two companies were brought together under the umbrella of the MICO Wakefield Group.

• June 15, 1994 | GE Crane Holdings Limited

MICO Wakefield became a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Crane Holdings Limited, Australia the new ownership providing direct links to similar manufacturing and trading operations in Australia and we become MICO Metals.

• May 5, 2010 | Fletcher Building Ltd

The Crane Group was acquired by Fletcher Building Ltd, New Zealand’s largest listed public company who divested us to Wakefield Metals Ltd, a privately owned business. The buyers have a number of other metal distribution businesses in Australasia, and have a history in metal distribution in the United Kingdom and Europe.

• April 5, 2012 | Wakefield Metals

As a result of this acquisition we have ceased to use the trade name MICO Metals and are now trading under our new trade name Wakefield Metals and as you can see it is a name that has strong links to our past.

Cutting Services:
Wakefield Metals operates a cut-to-length facility and precision leveller for processing non-ferrous sheet from coil to customer requirements. Equipped with an automatic stacker the line processes coil up to 1550mm in width, from thickness of 0.45mm to 3.25mm.

We offer a range of other services, such as laser cutting, etching, turret punching, powder coating, anodising & folding through our supply partners locally.

CNC Router Cutting

Wakefield Metals operates a CNC Router Cutter for processing large Aluminium sheets &  plates up to 2m wide and 9.2m long.

Beam Saws

Wakefield operates 6 band saws and have the capability to cut up to 500mm in diameter and discs as small as 5mm to close tolerances. (dependent on bar diameter)

With over 66 years of experience in New Zealand, Wakefield Metals can provide technical support and assistance through their field sales representatives and in-house customer services teams at all Service Centres.

Wakefield Metals provides inventory & logistical management through JIT support to a number of New Zealand’s leading manufacturing companies.

As well as that we hold extensive ranges of merchandising stocks held in our Service Centre network and where stock is not held locally, each branch can call upon the nationwide network for backup held at our Metal Centre operations in Auckland.

Wakefield Metals will also source and indent specialist metals and fasteners to customer’s requirements.