Fakir reputation
hello Guy,
Fakir has always been a budget-priced brand, but this last decade they lost some of their business ground due to the fact that
a.) the 2 major retail chain stores "Media Markt" and "Saturn" brainwashed the nation to buy lowest-priced plastic crap (no name canisters for 49,- Euros and less).
Their slogan: "Geiz ist geil" (your greed is hot/sharp/sexy).
So most people end up with no-name machines ("yogurt cups", "plastic bombers") that go dead after 1 year or so. "so what?" they say and return to "Geiz ist geil" to get the next one.
b.) Dirt-Devil Germany (Royal) pushed the red cyclone canister "Centrix" in competition to the Dyson and was very successful. (like a cheap "VolksDyson")
c.) in the commercial market the yellow Kärcher machines gained a lot of the market through some new "try for a month, then buy or return"-campaign aimed at small cleaning businesses.
Today Fakir no longer produces these uprights, only the round canisters are practically unchanged since their introduction and they are quite widespread (schools, workshops, computer cleaner services, hotels, student homes and such), because they are practically indestructable. The older ones (from the 80s) have scratches all over from years of hard abuse but most are still going strong (maybe a new switch or new spring for the cable winder, but hardly more than that)
so if you want a "no-frills" down-to-earth vacuum for little money, you buy Fakir.
No comparison to Miele, Lux, Kirby high-end machines of course, but no "Made in King Kong" crap either. Just good, reasonable cleaning power for a "it will not hurt me" price. Nothing glitzy, but plain sturdy and idiot-proof design. The service is quite good, you get parts for years to come and the design hardly ever changes.
You start your own business but have not earned the big money yet to invest? You get Fakir.
The quality is practically among Bosch/Siemens/AEG but somewhat more longlife.
Hope this helped.
Joe
