New leadership can often bring about many positive changes for all stakeholders involved with an organisation; everyone from employees to sales partners and customers can benefit from a fresh perspective and renewed enthusiasm from the top.
This was certainly the case when René Joppi joined Telford based Filtermist Limited as Managing Director in January 2025.
10 years ago, Filtermist was a successful UK manufacturer that exported over 90% of its products around the world but it was very much focussed on one niche area: oil mist filtration and supporting aftermarket services.
Fast forward to 2026 and the company now manufactures two additional product ranges – Dustcheck dust collectors and venting filters, and Kerstar industrial vacuum cleaners, and is actively investing in its future. This includes improving its infrastructure and systems, employing the best people for specific roles and actively working to ensure they are satisfied with their working life, and developing its product offering to meet the changing needs of its global customer base.
Meeting Global Air Quality Standards
René takes up the story; “The pandemic raised awareness around the world about the dangers of breathing in contaminated air, something Filtermist and our parent company Absolent Air Care Group have been talking about for a long time.
“The Group’s vision is for ‘a world where no-one is harmed by air pollution at work’. Unfortunately for many people, occupational illnesses caused by breathing in oil mist, dust and fume are still a very real risk, but one which can very easily be mitigated by installing effective extraction equipment.
“Industry and regulatory requirements are both moving at a rapid pace and it’s vital that the extraction industry that supports manufacturing and engineering companies keeps up with evolving demands.
“We are in the envious position of being part of a strong group of companies with a presence on all four continents, and we have an active role in shaping the group’s direction and strategy to ensure our customers’ needs are considered at group level.
“This strength is coupled with the flexibility and agility found in SME organisations – we keep being nimble and flexible, and focus on what we think is right for our customer base.
“We have very close professional relationships with many of the world’s leading machine tool manufacturers, our global partners and distributor network, and we recognise the importance of developing and nurturing these relationships – especially with end-users who rely on our products to keep the air in their workplaces clean and safe to breathe.
Digital Innovation and Product Development
“We’ve recently completed a Lean Transformation project that helped us to streamline our production operations. We’re now turning our attention to a wide-ranging digital transformation which includes the implementation of a new ERP system and using AI technologies wherever possible to help us work smarter.
“We are working on an exciting product development pipeline with a renewed focus on innovation to help our customers comply with local regulatory requirements around indoor air quality and position Filtermist for its next phase of international expansion.
“This includes several product innovations targeted at different parts of the market; whilst air quality has moved up the agenda in practically every country since Covid, it is still a higher priority in some countries than others. We recognise that we cannot take a ‘one size fits all’ approach – requirements can differ vastly when comparing different continents or different industries for example. We want to ensure that our partner has the right solution, for the right cost depending on their requirements.
Sustainability and People
“As a long-standing business whose products bring about health, safety and environmental improvements, sustainability has been at the top of our agenda for a long time. We work hard to reduce our own carbon footprint and help our customers reduce their energy consumption, and we invest in our people to ensure they have the skills and support needed to do their jobs. Our people are proud of our purpose and why wouldn’t they be? Their work is actively making the lives of other workers around the world that little bit better.
“Absolent Air Care Group has ambitious carbon reduction targets, and we are also seeing an increased focus on ESG from many of our customers working in industries including aerospace and defence, automotive, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical.
“It’s important for many of our multi-national customers that their suppliers’ values align with their own, and we’re proud that ours do. Everything we do is focussed on helping global manufacturers protect their workforces from exposure to airborne particulate as easily as possible.
“None of the above would be possible without our people - they are fundamental to the continued success of our business.
“We are proud to have achieved Great Place to Work certification for four consecutive years, and over the past six months we have introduced a range of measures designed to improve the work / life balance of our employees. We take real pride in the role we play in our local community, from our Culture and Community programme of voluntary team activities, fund-raising and social events, to working with educational establishments to encourage young people into our industry.
Looking to the future for Filtermist
“Alignment is something we talk about a lot in our business, but this is critical to achieving our goals; this initial period has been about setting a clear strategic direction which aligns with our customers’ needs and expectations, as well as our own business objectives, and aligning our people and operational capabilities to be able to deliver a first class portfolio of products backed by industry-leading customer service.
“For customers, these changes mean Filtermist is a stronger, more responsive partner for all aspects of industrial workplace air quality. This issue doesn’t just impact on workers’ health - using effective localised contaminant extraction brings numerous other business benefits including lower housekeeping and heating bills, less risk of fires and slips in the workplace, improved component quality, increased productivity, less downtime from worker ill-health – the list goes on.
“I inherited a business with a strong reputation, an agile culture and the desire to significantly increase global growth. The past 18 months have been instrumental in shoring up our foundations to position us for the next chapter in Filtermist’s journey and my team and I are all very excited to see what the future holds.”
This article was first published in Machinery and Manufacturing Magazine issue 29 October 2026.