Six months on since securing exclusive distribution of Edco Products in New Zealand and increasing its product range threefold, Filta Cleaning Products is showing no signs of slowing. INCLEAN NZ editor Claire Hibbit caught up with Filta Cleaning Products general manager Lee James to talk about Filta’s latest venture.
In January Filta Cleaning Products cemented itself as a major player in New Zealand’s commercial cleaning industry, increasing its product range from 150 lines to more than 400 following its appointment as NZ distributor of Australia’s Edco Products.
“It gave us great depth overnight,” Lee James, general manager of Filta Cleaning Products said of the deal. “We were able to launch to market a major player of commercial cleaning products in Australia which was a real positive for us as a business.”
The distribution deal included Edco’s extensive janitorial ranges, Sorbo window cleaning equipment and ETC floor pads. According to Lee, in addition to the 400 plus lines Filta secured as part of the deal, the partnership also enabled the company to streamline the purchasing process for its customers.
“Prior to taking on Edco we had about 150 lines. The partnership gave us an additional 400 lines of commercial cleaning products so we’ve grown our range pretty much threefold. It’s also given our business partners much greater depth and the ability to consolidate their purchases,” explained Lee.
Filta has also grown its warehouse network to three across Auckland, however, the company still picks and packs every order from its headquarters in Ellerslie.
“We’re in a service-based industry. Deliverables with our business partners is about process of order, speed of order and accuracy of order. We have to ensure that our key stakeholder expectations are being met. Because of that, we’ve had to increase our stockholding quite dramatically which in turn has meant that we’ve created a greater sourcing opportunity and supply consolidation for our partners as well.”
Filta is currently looking to move from its existing 500sqm headquarters to a new location. Lee said around 2000sqm would be ideal for the company to house both a central warehouse, training facility and showroom.
This first appeared in the August issue of INCLEAN NZ magazine. To read the full article, click here.