Since 2019, one of the most common questions we get is “Who is Filda Filters”? Lets try to answer that starting with a little filter industry background.
Most people are familiar with the big 5 names in engine mobile filtration: Baldwin, Fleetguard, Wix, Donaldson and Fram. These 5 brands and their parent companies represent over 75% of worldwide filter manufacturing in this category. The last 25% is a mixture of small specialty manufacturers, one of which is Filda Filters.
Based in Taiwan with their plant in Taoyuan and head office in New Taipei City, Filda has been in business since 1987. Early on Filda had great success in the Taiwanese domestic market which lead to international expansion. In 2001 Filda entered into an agreement with Japan’s Nippon Rokaki to share technical and manufacturing knowledge and to produce filters for the Japanese aftermarket (under the “Takai” brand) and started working towards accessing the Japanese OEM market. In 2008 Filda achieved ISO-9001 certification and started producing for the Japanese OEM market. Increased production volume over the next years lead to the 2012 construction of their current 100 000+sq. ft. manufacturing facility. Since 2012 Filda has added several ISO compliance certifications including: ISO 16889, ISO 19438, and ISO 4548-12 as well as a testing lab with ISO 5011 compliance. This makes Filda one of the most advanced filter manufacturers on the planet today.
If you have any Asian manufactured equipment the chances are you have used Filda filters and not even known it. Filda is now heavily involved in producing filters for OEM’s across the globe and in several cases is the only worldwide source of a particular filter. Filda also produces for major filter companies like Baldwin and Mann&Hummel. We have been selling Filda filters for decades in Baldwin and MANN branded boxes! This brings us to 2019 when we decided that we’ve reached a volume that could support reaching out to Filda directly. Filda was very interested in growing their direct to North America sales volume and were receptive to our advances.
We have selected which Filda filters we bring in strategically. If the cost savings and volume is significant enough or if the Filda version of a particular filter shows some superior property, we will trial the part number. After a successful trial we will sell the part number at retail. If the trial is unsuccessful, we will work with Filda to adjust the relevant aspect and re-trial. There are some part numbers that do not make it to retail for one reason or another, but the vast majority of part numbers perform excellently. We have also been able to have custom filters made to solve some particular problems, Filda is still small enough that they’re interested in running small batches (100-1000 units) for small retailers like us.
Legal agreements and patents are a fact of life in the filter industry these days and Filda is no different. There are certain part numbers that Filda simply cannot sell into North America period, and there are certain part numbers that Filda can’t sell with the “Filda” brand. For the latter, we use a “VL Filter” label to get around that. The VL Filter branding is exclusive to us so we control the legal wranglings on that one! We also see filters with Takai, Japan Element, and Japan Motor Parts branding if Filda has stock and we cannot wait for custom packaging to be designed and manufactured.
You can visit Filda’s website here: Filda Filters