Say you’ve just bought a brand new Isuzu D Max ute. Spent $62k for a nice fully loaded one with all the fruit. It’s made in Thailand. You obviously don’t have any dramas with a Japanese manufacturer making products in a different country to their exacting standards. Likewise for a Toyota Hilux, Nissan Navara, Holden Colorado, Ford Ranger or Mazda BT50. You and your mates probably don’t all sit around on a Friday night over beers saying, “I’m only going to buy a ute made in Japan because Thai manufacturers don’t know what they are doing”.
Let’s also say you just took your brand spanking new D Max to your friendly local Isuzu dealer for its first service at 1000ks. The dealer selects the genuine Isuzu filter, made to exacting standards by, wait for it, Sakura, in Indonesia.
The location of manufacture doesn’t determine the value of a product
The global marketplace has changed the way pretty much everything is being made in today’s market. BMWs and Volkswagens are being made in South Africa. Jeeps are being made in Austria. Toyotas are being made in Austria. The largest BMW plant in the world is in Alabama in the USA. The days of having the location of manufacture determine the value of a product are pretty much over. Do you think the buyers of a 3 Series BMW or a VW Golf care where it is actually made? Do you care where your new ute is made? No. You care about the power, the equipment, the brand and what that says about you as an owner.
The same holds true for filters and their origin of manufacture. As we’ve mentioned previously, no single manufacturer makes every single filter they sell. They all make filters for each other. Likewise, there are really only 2 OEM manufacturers that make their own filters. Cummins through its Fleetguard division, and Caterpillar through its AFSI joint venture factories with Donaldson. There are even filter companies that don’t retail filters through their own brand. All they do is make filters for other filter manufacturers and OEMs.
So, how does Sakura Filters fit in?
Sakura has a massive amount of initial fit and OEM filter business. In addition to Isuzu light vehicles and trucks, Sakura also produces OEM filters for Mitsubishi/Fuso, Hino, Kubota, Carrier Refrigeration and General Motors Holden. Chances are if you’ve had your Holden serviced by a dealer in the last 10 years then it has had a Sakura made filter on it. Sakura holds the highest level accreditation from Hino, Mitsubishi/Fuso and Isuzu. These companies and the other OEMs they supply don’t mess about with quality. If Sakura filters weren’t up to their specification they wouldn’t have the business. Yet they have had the business for many, many years.
What do we know about Sakura Filters and the Western Australian market?
Filter Supplies has a history in introducing new brands to the local market and establishing them as a competitive product. In the 50 plus years that we have been servicing the WA market, we have introduced so many brands that have gone on to flourish. Donaldson, Mann & Hummel, Filtrec, Internormen and Sakura. We know quality products.
Our history with Sakura goes back to 2006. Before we even started selling the product the entire management team toured the Sakura factory just outside Jakarta and met with the CEO Mr Eddy Hartono. We have toured filter factories throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and the USA. We know a solid, reliable, quality operation when we see it. Sakura’s factory is possibly more labour intensive than a Mann & Hummel factory in Germany, but they use their staff to good effect with numerous quality control measures that we have never seen in any other factory we have toured. In the 13 years, we have been representing Sakura in the Western Australian market we have never had any form of warranty claim. Nothing.
Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the Sakura story is the work they do for other large filtration companies. They produce a lot of filters for other large manufacturers. Chances are if you’ve used a filter that is made in Indonesia then it has been made in a Sakura factory.
The best endorsement that we as a company can give Sakura filters though is that we use them in our personal cars. We have access to every brand of filter that you can find in the Australian market, and we use Sakura.
If Original Equipment Manufacturers, two of the largest filter companies in the world and us, the oldest and largest filter specialists in Australia use and recommend Sakura Filters – perhaps you will too.
