From small beginnings in 1975 as Wetback Erection, South African mechanical and piping contractor Wetback Contracts has grown to become known for its quality and performance, celebrating a 50-year legacy in servicing the Southern African construction industry.

“Over five decades we have accumulated an abundant wealth of knowledge from project to project and have learned numerous lessons that can be applied to the successful execution of future projects,” says Wetback Contacts CEO and MD Gianni Anić.

However, that being said, while the company has evolved, its core principles have fundamentally remained the same.

“The industry is very much labour driven. We still need top artisans at the end of the day and these artisans can only perform their jobs in a particular way, using specific equipment. We might be seen as an old-fashioned industry, but you still need real skilled people to go up the scaffold and do the job in situ – no computer or technology can take their place.”

Wetback’s heritage started with Croatian-born Wetback Erection founder Ante Miljak, who began the company with just a tradesmen’s welding machine. Having been in South Africa for under two years and installing industrial boilers for a well-known boiler manufacturer for 11 months, he made the decision to venture forth on his own. Through determination, persistence and a keen eye for factories with chimneys, he secured his first job. He was paid R50 to fix a pump at a factory in Cleveland, Johannesburg. This had a positive ripple effect, leading to a referral to install piping for a new factory being built in Bethlehem, in the Free State.

“Subsequently, I secured a contract to assist with the construction of a nickel and cobalt refinery in Rustenburg, in the North West, in 1981. That was my first major job, the breakthrough, that gave me a name in the industry.”

Miljak succeeded in delivering the project in three months when it was six months behind schedule, triggering a host of lucrative projects in the mining industry going forward.

Upholding its motto of quality and performance, the company, which was re-branded as Wetback Contracts in 1991 under the leadership of Ante Miljak’s late brother Ivan Miljak, has successfully navigated the challenges synonymous with construction projects while preserving its reputation for quality and on-time delivery.

Besides the mechanical equipment installation, fabrication and installation of piping systems, structural steel, plate work, pressure vessels, fired heaters, the company also offers shutdown, maintenance, electrical and instrumentation services, to the Southern African construction industry.

“Today, Wetback is where I wanted it to be, one of the top companies in the construction industry,” adds Miljak.

Being privately owned has been a significant advantage, helping Wetback to maintain its core values and business excellence across decades of industry evolution, says Anić.

“Our shareholders and executives are industry experts with a long tenure. Our ever-improving world-class quality assurance system is part of the company’s DNA and, over the years, has evolved into an integrated management system (IMS).”

Wetback’s IMS has ensured continuous transformation, as it incorporates all the variables, besides financial. Together with its focus on employee empowerment and the widespread dissemination of the company’s vision through clear leadership, Wetback maintains the core values that were present from the company’s onset.

Besides being an excellent entrepreneur, Miljak set the tone for the company’s core values – commitment, collaboration, excellence, flexibility and integrity, highlights Anić.

“Eager self-implementation of these core values by members of staff ultimately ensures business excellence and Wetback’s continued evolution.”

Anić advances that continuous improvement is essential for any organisation and can be achieved by balancing the lessons learned, enterprise risk management and developing new ideas on the basis of past experience.

“That is what makes us resilient and successful in response to the demands of the competitive industrial markets of today,” he says, emphasising that the company’s vast experience is linked to its favourable staff retention statistics.

For example, Wetback’s operations director started at the company as a pipe fitter in the 2000’s and its procurement director has been in the industry since the mid-1980s, explains Anić, who started his South African career in the Wetback workshop in 1991 on his arrival from Croatia.

“Many of our staff members have that core memory and easily communicate the knowledge and understanding that they have absorbed, while executing projects over the years, throughout our organisation. This includes learnings from blue chip projects such as our work on Sasol’s Fischer-Tropsch Wax Expansion Project or Eskom’s turbine units at the Medupi and Kusile power stations.”

While larger players with complex governance structures have disappeared over the years, Wetback remains resilient, owing to its flexibility, ability to enact faster decision-making and willingness to improve, learn and adapt where possible.