aFe Power

TWENTY YEARS OF POWER: PART ONE

Four friends stood in an empty building – they had just quit their jobs, emptied their savings, and maxed out their credit cards. “We stood there, looking at each other like, what were we thinking?” remembers Nick Niakan, President and CEO of aFe POWER.

That was in 1999. That was when the former coworkers made the decision to put everything they had into creating a superior air filter. This meant leaving behind their comfortable life, barely seeing their families, balancing dozens of credit cards, and coping with no vacations and zero paychecks for close to three years.

“It was just about believing in the dream,” said Dave Howey.

HERE'S OUR STORY

“We started from scratch,” said Stuart Miyagishima, VP of Engineering.

The original team of four hand-cut, oiled, packaged, and shipped out each filter – holding their work to the highest quality standards, all while on a budget with limited resources. “My proudest moment was the creation of that first filter.”

They took advantage of a small section of a local strip mall, making that home to super long working hours and a rapidly expanding business: advanced FLOW engineering.

They expanded to take over the surrounding storefronts including roughly 50,000 square feet of space, before making a leap to purchase a 78,000 square foot building across the street. “The company was expanding at a rate that, at every six months, we had a new set of issues and completely different problems,” explains Dave Howey.

“We took over that building, and all of a sudden, we have a dyno, we’re making exhaust systems...” With its continued growth, the company then continued into the suspension and electronics markets to fill gaps in the industry where it was evident that quality parts were lacking.

“This company is so dynamic in the sense that it keeps forging forward. I expected it to grow this way – everyone did,” said Dave Howey. The immense drive that radiates from the team is still extremely evident to this day. Dave Simpson, VP of Sales, said, “You can’t beat Nick’s passion. You can’t beat Nick’s drive.” Dave Howey adds, “We’re brothers.”

The first ten years of aFe POWER as a company were full of struggles and constant growing pains. While now, the ample growth is still there and, of course, the issues keep arising, but we are moving through our growth with much more grace. Today, we’re providing performance products to virtually every single market out there – and the list of products keeps growing.

Over the past ten years, we’ve taken our original product lineup (that started with air filters, then intakes, then eventually exhaust) and have expanded it drastically.

“We’ve seen people cater to certain markets, from a diesel guy to a sport compact guy, but we want to cater to all of those people.”- Stuart Miyagishima, VP of Engineering.

Ten years ago, we made our official debut into the sport compact market, starting our import-focused brand, Takeda. Soon after, we went on to create intercoolers, differential covers, transmission pans, headers, turbochargers, performance electronics, and more.

With the need for more space, a 165,000 square foot facility was purchased, including what we call the “Factory Store.”

Enthusiasts can visit our HQ's factory store to purchase product or aFe branded gear.

Soon after came our expansion into the suspension world. It started with Pfadt Race Engineering, Inc. then we acquired Sway-A-Way, taking both the on- and off-road performance suspension worlds by storm.

From receiving SEMA’s media of the year award (not once, but twice) and our “Product of the Year” award for our Diesel Fuel Systems, to recent acquisitions of roto-molding and electronics businesses, our continued growth proves “hard work pays off.” The contributions from those four friends that started off to create the ultimate air filter – and all the hundreds of employees since – have made it all worth it.

...Here's to another 20 years of POWER.

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aFe_POWER

This entry was posted in aFe News and tagged advanced FLOW engineering, Our Story, 20th Anniversary, Performance Products, aFe Power on May 21, 2019 by Jenna Schiebe.

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TWENTY YEARS OF POWER: PART ONE

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