In Meqelle, a name long associated with industrial grit and regional pride is undergoing a strategic metamorphosis.

On October 2, 2025, Mesfin Industrial Engineering Plc shed its old skin, emerging as "Mesfin Metals & Engineering Plc," also known as Mesfin, in a rebranding campaign that was as much about optics as it was about survival.

The name change, designed by Glocal Consulting Group, signals an attempt to dissociate the company from its wartime connotations. Its executives seek to reposition Mesfin as a nationally recognised industrial player, distancing itself from what they described as "unfair associations with wartime activities" during the two-year civil war. These perceptions, executives say, not only clouded the company’s public image but threatened its future ability to compete for contracts, especially large-scale infrastructure and industrial projects.

For Tessema Gidey (Eng.), managing director of the company, the rebranding is tactical and existential.

“We’re victims of wrong perception,” he said, referring to the shadow cast by allegations made against EFFORT-affiliated companies. Mesfin’s name had become entangled in narratives of "war finance, money laundering, and political militancy", accusations that froze its accounts, threatened its market competitiveness, and stained its reputation. The rebranding, according to company officials, aspires to rectify “wrong perceptions” and signal a fresh chapter for the company as it seeks to reestablish itself in the manufacturing sector.

According to Yikunoamlak Tesfay, founder and CEO, the goal was to redefine Mesfin’s identity visually and strategically.

“We wanted to evolve Mesfin from an industrial brand tied to its past into a modern and nationally recognised enterprise,” he told Fortune. "The rebranding is meant to reaffirm Mesfin’s identity as a professional and non-political industrial enterprise.”

The civil war, which erupted after months of political tension, left widespread destruction in its wake, particularly in the Tigray Regional State. Factories, infrastructure, and businesses across the region suffered, and Mesfin was no exception. A post-war assessment conducted by the company revealed that Mesfin had incurred losses exceeding one billion Birr due to the war's impact.

During the war years, federal authorities had frozen the bank accounts of all firms affiliated with EFFORT, including Mesfin, Sur Construction, Guna Trading, Trans Ethiopia, Selam Public Transport, Mega Printing House, Almeda Textile Factory, and Mesobo Cement Factory. They alleged that these companies were involved in collaboration with groups seeking to "overthrow the constitutional order, inciting ethnic violence, and establishing unlawful organisations." They were also accused of "laundering money derived from corruption or criminal activities."

The fallouts from these allegations were consequential. The Federal Attorney General appointed a seven-member interim trustee board to oversee EFFORT-owned companies. Many on the board had previously managed the firms. Yet, this interim arrangement proved fleeting. Within months, the Federal High Court dissolved the board, stating concerns that “the assets of the companies were not being properly managed,” and imposed a temporary freeze on all assets under investigation.

The Court then appointed Commercial Nominees Plc, a subsidiary company of the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), to manage 18 firms under EFFORT. This setup continued until the end of the war in November 2022, following a deal signed between the federal government and the TPLF in Pretoria, South Africa. High court judges lifted the asset freeze on 21 companies and ended the management role of Commercial Nominees Plc.

Since then, EFFORT-owned firms, including Mesfin, have been overseen by an interim regional administration of Tigray, now led by Tadesse Werede (Maj. Gen.), with the task of restoring operations and reputation.

Rebranding has not come cheaply for Mesfin. The initiative, which involved a new name and logo, cost nearly three million Birr, according to Tessema. The sum does not include additional expenses to update all company signage and branding across its facilities. Tessema disclosed that the rebranding responds not only to post-war misconceptions but also to the company’s evolution.

Mesfin Industrial was one of the five companies initially incorporated in 1992 as the founding firms of EFFORT. Upon incorporation, Mesfin, named in honour of a TPLF fighter killed during the war in the late 1970s, had a capital of 100 million Br, registered under founding shareholders, such as Yalem Seyoum, Kahsay Weldemichael, Yemane Tewelde, Tadesse Debelu, and Medhin Kiros, all former fighters. Three years later, a major restructuring of these companies saw Mesfin's shareholders transferring 96pc of their shares to the EFFORT, while the remaining shares were redistributed among Berhan Building Construction, Messebo S.C. and Meskerem Investment Plc.