About FCL Organisation
We are proud of our history and excited about our future. The FCL Organisation continues to grow, each company bringing new products into exciting sectors worldwide and achieving sales of over £30 million. As a highly reputable group of companies, relationships forged 30 years ago are still in place today, with both customers and suppliers. Over the years the group have proven to be adaptable and flexible to overcome market challenges, and bold actions have been taken to increase productivity and to position the company as a competitive force for the years ahead. The FCL manufacturing plant, also based in Northampton has developed to such an extent over the last 30 years that it now produces some of the most technologically advanced filters on the market.
30 Years of Quality and Innovation
Meanwhile, Pipercross Ltd, a new company based in Lutterworth entered the bus market with an innovative dual stage, long life foam air filter intent on rivaling Cosworth’s Filtron. The Cosworth filter division reacted with a plan to expand the business and manufacturing capacity and entered into a partnership with Custom Foams, part of Beaverco PLC. From the early stages of this relationship, variants of the original foam filter were conceived including a unique line of disposal air cleaners, the 5 series.
Two years later, and with the financial support of Beaverco, Deryck Norville went on to head up a new standalone filtration company: Filtration Control Ltd, with a team of 3. By 1988 and having brought to the market the new wrap designs, which dramatically increased the filtration surface area and dust retention, sales were growing to beyond £500,000.
An opportunity then presented itself in 1987 when Pipercross Ltd, having had little success in the bus industry, but with an attractive range of competition filters was put on the market for sale. This strategic move into a new sector was orchestrated by Deryck Norville, and with the amalgamation of the two companies, a new premises was sought in Northampton.
With Deryck as the company’s Managing Director and now one of 3 owners to include the other Directors still on the board today: Darran Johnson and Martin Jones, and despite the recession, the company saw sales grow to £1.5 million.
Following the privatisation of the national bus groups, companies such as First Group and Stagecoach consolidated its operations during the 1990s by purchasing management and employee owned bus companies. With this consolidation of operations, the first centrally negotiated parts contracts were awarded, and Filtration Control Ltd were successful in securing filter supply agreements with a number of companies, including British Bus (soon to become Arriva) and National Express.
These important supply Partnerships with both Fleetguard (now known as Cummins Filtration), and Mann & Hummel enabled FCL to offer a complete OE filtration package to Bus sector, and firmly established a reputation of quality, technical expertise and high levels of customer service.
Today FCL is the largest distributor of Cummins Filtration in Europe, and Mann Filter for heavy duty applications in the UK.
Testament to its popularity, today the Blue Diamond is used across all major rail groups in the UK, and its sisters the Black Diamond and Series 5 filters for all major bus groups and these can even be found on the major bus fleets in Asia.
2008 saw the introduction of the Series 5 foam air filters across the First Group America fleet of 65,000 school buses. And to enable a competitive break into the automotive industry, a new partnership was formed with worldwide filter manufacturer and Nascar sponsor Wix.
By the start of 2010 the company had grown to achieve a record turnover of £15 million, with 65 staff over 2 distribution sites.
With an appointment of a new management team in place, the Pipercross brand is now renowned in the motorsport industry. These high performance filters have helped race teams win major championships on the British, European and world stage.
The separate divisions within FCL – the AdBlue division and the Wix Automotive division had by now, become standalone companies – EFL (European Filtration Ltd) and FCSL (Filtration Control Solutions Ltd) with Deryck’s daughter Stacy at the helm. Both new companies have enjoyed rapid expansion since incorporation, the fresh, dynamic team within EFL gaining ever increasing market share and promoting the Wix Filter brand in the UK, and FCSL securing group lubricants and coolants contracts in the UK Bus sector.
Total FCSL Litres Delivered Annualy
25,804,294LLitres Delivered last year.
Adblue: 18,204,200LScreen wash: 538,384L
Antifreeze: 4,570,000L
Lubricants: 2,122,890L
Foam Filters Sold Per Month:
4,000 Heavy Duty Foam Air Cleaners
3,000 HVAC
Batteries Sold Per Month
4,250Total Warehouse Size
60,000 SQ/FStock Movements Per Day 12,000
Filters Manufactured Per Week 8,000Filters Dispatched Per Week
60,000
Stock Valuation
£1.8M >£2MTop Filter Manufacturers by spend
Mann+HummelDonaldson
Cummins Filtration
