Mike said:
"While Hastings may be owned by Baldwin, their products are not the same filters painted with different logos, no more than a Cadillac is a Chevy. They all cater to certain part of the market. Just because some companies are owned by a larger company does not mean they all market the same products under different names. It's just a larger corp buying up the competition."
While there's some merit to what you're saying, the economics of production push manufacturers into consolidating product lines.
Let's take a Honda Civic filter. I've seen both Baldwin & Hastings filters for this application. Both are well made pieces. Why would you source parts independently and maintain two distinct production lines? That's inefficient ... and this is a price competitive business.
While different brands under one owner may run parallel operations for years (usually following a merger or aquisition), any repsonsible company should eliminate redundancy as much as possible. It's the responsible thing to do.
I agree that they may decide that Baldwin is a stronger name in the industrial sector while Hastings has a great reputation among passenger cars. And it may be right now that some filters for the same applications
are different, but the goal
should be to eliminate as much duplication of effort, redundant part numbers, etc ... and that means manufacturing one filter for each specific application. As long as they pick the better of the two designs, I don't see a problem.
Again, this doesn't mean they need to cheapen their line ... unless they want to make it clear that one brand is of a higher quality than the other. But last I checked, this wasn't the case with Baldwin/Hastings.
Of course, making a cheaper filter is a way to broaden your appeal because few store owners will stock only a premium line of filters. They are afraid of alienating
their customers who balk at paying more than $3 for an oil filter.
On the other hand, I buy only high quality products and salute companies who cater to my elitist desires.
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Bror Jace
