This family business turns sheet metal into unique, innovative solutions

Chinese couple and business owners Melvin and Nancy Dy are reinventing the way we see sheet metal and turning it into vibrant, chic designs.

Melvin Dy, head of MD Gruppe, one of the key players of sheet metal processing and other services in the country, wants to produce Filipino-made creations, crafted with fine details and remarkable functions, to the world.

He sees a bright future for this vision, seeing how his family business started 28 years ago.

In 1989, Rosa Go Tieng, Melvin’s auntie, founded the RTG Sheet Metal Works, whose primary customers are the transport and construction industries and neighbors within their community in Tramo, Pasay. 

Starting with only 3 men – a secretary, one welder, and Auntie Rosa herself, the business thrived amidst the absence of technology and machinery. 

Rosa’s untimely passing in 2010 due to illness was when Melvin had to look at the business more seriously.

Melvin says it was a difficult transition, but he had to take the lead anyway. This, he says, is a mixture of pride and shock. Pride, as he leads the legacy of what his aunt has started, but most especially shock after his aunt’s sudden death. “I didn’t know anything about finance. I didn’t know anything about marketing and sales. So 2010 was the turning point. I had to take over,” he says.

Melvin confesses that he is the playful type and was often scolded by his aunt for not looking into the finance side of the business.  

When he took over, he continued with his aunt’s business structure, but incorporated his own character through putting in more technology in the process. 

“I didn’t change anything,” he says. I just introduced more equipment. With the equipment also came the systems and the quality standards—all our factories are now ISO certified. We comply with international standards. That’s one of our drives.” He says that he always wants the best equipment to further improve their services. Today, they have computerized machines that are more intuitive to use.

Melvin now shakes off the challenges, as he jokingly says he was lucky to have gotten married years before the big transition happen or else couldn’t have gotten married at all.

“It was good. Otherwise, I think I wouldn’t have survived it as well without a better half,” the father-of-four jokes. 

For her part, Nancy can be called as the mother for the group. Nancy considers her role – both in the family and in the company – as almost the same since she handles the finance side of the business. 

Melvin confessed that he’s quite the shopper when it comes to scouting for new technologies for the business, which are all brought in from abroad.

This is where the two meet in the middle.

Nancy says she puts her faith in whatever Melvin envisions. “He’ll say ‘don’t worry,’ I have many projects for those. Once or twice he proved that he is right. I am amazed by his drive. He anticipates well.” 

Cutting like paper, origami-style

Melvin admits that it has long been his dream to make a brand that reflects their aesthetic, after years of processing materials for their clients—both local and international.

Growing further, MD Gruppe welcomed the Cutting Edge Materials Processing, their third manufacturing facility, which is now expanding to making products they can call their own. 

From a line of premium metal gates called Celosia, and planter boxes and garden ornaments from the brand name Arcadia, the couple wants to deliver minimal yet intricate designs to homeowners. 

Their Celosia designs, all made with attention to fine details and creative imagination, can be incorporated in gates, fences, facades, dividers, and windows. 

Arcadia, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air as it injects shades of green to indoor spaces or vibrant hues in outdoor areas. Most of these products are made with the style of mirroring origami-technique of folding a thin sheet of metal through laser cutting to make one whole piece. 

“We cut like paper. We put some designs, and then we fold it.  Since its metal, it has sturdiness, unlike paper. Paper and cardboard can only be used as decorations but unlike metal, using the same techniques, can actually create products that are usable,” Melvin explains. 

Cutting Edge’s third brand Intellock, meanwhile, marries tradition and technology. Its flagship products are intelligent boxes and tool cabinets made for security solutions. 

The group has come a long way since it was established, and it has molded its name in sheet metal processing throughout these years, even being tapped the aerospace industry, among others.

 

When it comes to the manufacturing sheet metal crafts, the Philippines supposedly falls short compared the international scene, but Melvin wants to dispel this notion. 

“We’ve been providing world-class services for years now. I’m here to tell you that we are alive.” – Rappler.com