Banner secures €60m North American battery order

Banner – Europe’s leading manufacturer of batteries and battery accessories – has entered 2021 on a high having secured a lucrative order that will see the company supply 1.5 million lead acid batteries to the North American market.

Valued at €60m (£53.6), Banner’s starter batteries will be retrofitted to European vehicles across both the US and Canada.

As Franz Märzinger, Banner’s Sales & Marketing Director comments: “The contract will see Banner deliver lead batteries in the six-digit range to the USA every year. Indeed given that the market share of European vehicles is around 15%, the overall market potential is very large.”

Not surprisingly, Banner’s commercial director, Andreas Bawart, said the order would “make a significant contribution to securing jobs in Austria”. Banner has a workforce of around 800, with 520 employed at its Leonding base.

Commenting from a UK perspective, Country Manager, Lee Quinney added: “Whilst not impacting directly on our UK operation, this is obviously fantastic news for Banner to kick-start 2021, and we intend to ensure that the message resonates across our customer base, both live and prospective. Indeed not unlike Banner’s UK position, which itself continues to gain momentum, this latest development swerve to support Banner’s growing status as a truly global supplier of batteries and battery accessories.”

Banner currently produces and sells over 4 million starter batteries annually, and views sustainability and environmental protection as the cornerstones of its corporate philosophy.

Central to this is Banner’s reliance upon a closed product cycle that extends from manufacture to recycling, one that is based on a process of continual improvements, minimisation and prevention with regard to environmental impact. Not surprisingly, as a founder member of the Starter Battery Environmental Forum (UFS), Banner demonstrate a recycling quota of virtually 100%, and this has been driven by the investment over many years of several million Euros annually in environmental protection measures. As a result, the Banner production process today utilises 98% recycled lead, whilst 80% of battery box material consists of polypropylene recyclate. Furthermore, since 2015 the company’s entire electricity needs have been supplied by renewable energy sources, 60% of which is used for battery charging.
 
It is against this backdrop that the technology behind ‘start-stop’ micro-hybrid vehicles, lead batteries are delivering up to 8% CO2 savings in a highly cost-effective manner. Indeed lead batteries are an essential onboard component in all forms/categories of hybridisation and full electric vehicles.