In 1977, after 10 years as a NAPA supplier, we were gratified to receive our first Spirit of NAPA Award. In the ‘70s, we had our first packaging change, moving from the original Yellow and Brown to the new Black And Blue. The ‘60s and ‘70s saw continued growth as more and more NAPA member companies came on board and committed to the NAPA Filters Brand. These were pretty impressive numbers for a startup brand in the late 1960s. In that first year NAPA Filters had 419 parts numbers, and sales of $1.6 million. Showing dogged determination, sales expertise, and armed with an exciting idea with unlimited promise, the WIX sales force made a tremendous impact. Until then, NAPA stores carried a wide selection of auto parts and accessories from various major brands, but none with the NAPA brand. WIX had plenty of brand recognition in the marketplace, but this was bound to be a hard sale, replacing multiple iconic brands with the new NAPA branded filters. WIX had been around since 1939 and had revolutionized the oil changing world with its invention of the first spin-on oil filter in 1954. Their challenge: Convince NAPA AUTO Parts to empty their shelves of Fram, AC/Delco, and Purolator filters and replace them with NAPA Filters. Armed with the first NAPA Filters application catalog of about 100 pages and 419 part numbers, they began calling on NAPA member companies. So later in that same year, 25 brave souls, the first NAPA Filters Sales force, undertook a momentous challenge. The folks at NAPA embraced the idea and, on a handshake, NAPA Filters, the first ever NAPA branded product, was born. LG Alexander, the WIX representative, proposed that NAPA consider their own private label brand of filters, which WIX would manufacture. It was also in that same year that an important meeting took place between WIX Filters and NAPA. The first Ford Mustang was rolling off the assembly line, the Beatles were giving their last public performance in the US, and Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California.
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