Duracell

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Duracell
Duracell logo.svg
Product type Batteries and Smart Power Systems
Owner Procter & Gamble
Country United States
Tagline Trusted Everywhere
Website www.duracell.com

Duracell is an American brand product line of batteries and smart power systems owned by Procter & Gamble. In November 2014, Berkshire Hathaway announced its intent to acquire the brand for 4.7 billion US dollars. The acquisition received regulatory approval from the European Commission in July 2015,[1] and is due to be completed in early 2016.[2]

History

Duracell originated via the partnership of scientist Samuel Ruben and businessman Philip Rogers Mallory, who met during the 1920s. The P.R. Mallory Company of Burlington, Massachusetts, United States, relocated its headquarters to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1924. The company produced mercury batteries for military equipment,[3] trumping the carbon-zinc batteries used then in virtually all applications. During the 1950s, Kodak introduced cameras with a flash. The design required a new cell size, and size AAA was developed.[3]

A Duracell flashlight from the 1980s

In 1964, the term "Duracell" was introduced as a brand. The name is a portmanteau for "durable cell." Until 1980, the batteries also bore the Mallory brand.

The name came from a conversation with a shop owner. The executive called the company and asked if A-1 Durable Carpet Inc. had a trademark on the name Durable. The executive spoke to the son of the cleaning company, Steve Nobrega. The executive explained how they were thinking of calling a new battery that had a copper cell "Durable Cell" and asked how the name suited the company. The owner's son explained that his father was the owner of a franchise originally called "Duraclean". His father had chosen the new company name for the company by dropping the clean in "Duraclean" and added able to Dura to keep the name similar.

P.R. Mallory was acquired by Dart Industries in 1978, which in turn, merged with Kraft in 1980. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought Duracell in 1988 and took the company public in 1989. It was acquired by Gillette in 1996. In 2005, Procter & Gamble acquired Gillette.

In September 2011, Duracell and Powermat Technologies Ltd. started a joint venture, called Duracell Powermat, to make small wireless chargers for mobile phone and small electronics, with P&G owning 55% of the joint venture shares and Powermat 45%.[4]

In March 2012, along with Powermat technologies, Duracell, under the Procter & Gamble cooperate umbrella, funded the Power Matters Alliance (PMA), an alliance of leading industry and governmental organizations, that is dedicated to advancing smart and environmentally sound wireless power.[5] AT&T and Starbucks had announced joining the board of the PMA in October, 2012.[6]

On October 24, 2014, Procter & Gamble announced it would spin off Duracell in 2015.[7] On November 14, 2014, Berkshire Hathaway declared its intent to acquire Duracell in an all-stock deal, consisting of $4.7 billion worth of P&G stock currently owned by Berkshire Hathaway.[8]

Products

File:Duracell AA crop.JPG
A Duracell AA battery

Duracell manufactures alkaline batteries in many common sizes, such as AAA, AA, C, D, and 9V. Lesser-used sizes such as AAAA (primarily for pagers, penlights, and blood glucose meters) and J size batteries (for hospital devices and photographic strobe flash units) are also manufactured along with a range of "button" batteries using zinc-air, silver-oxide, and lithium chemistries, used in calculators, watches, hearing aids, and other small (mostly medical-related) devices. Duracell entered into a brand licensing agreement with flash memory manufacturer Dane-Elec in 2008 for a line of products including memory cards, hard drives and USB flash drives with the Duracell brand mark and in the brand's trademark "copper top" coloring.[9]

Duracell also manufactures specialty batteries, including NiMH rechargeable batteries and batteries for cameras, watches, hearing aids, etc. Their two main battery brands are "CopperTop (Plus)," marketed as longer-lasting, and "Ultra," directed mainly at users of digital devices and devices that need more power. Duracell also has a line of lithium chemistry batteries and products, now manufactured outside of the U.S.

In 2013, the company released a new "Duracell Quantum" line as their top-performing product series.[10]

File:Procell.jpeg
A Duracell Procell AA box with the battery superimposed

In recent years, Duracell's innovations expanded to include new battery designs with their prismatic batteries, which are prismatic in shape rather than cylindrical. Prismatic cells were made available in both alkaline and lithium designs. In 2006, Duracell introduced "Power Pix" batteries with NiOx technology, designed to supply longer life in digital cameras and other high-drain devices by up to twice the number of photos typically achievable with alkaline batteries.

Duracell batteries are also bulk packaged for end users under the brand name "Industrial by Duracell" (previously "Duracell Procell").

Advertising campaigns

Duracell's advertising campaigns in the United States have always outlined the reliability of Duracell batteries and usually end with a three-note chime highlighting each syllable in the brand name (and previously highlighting the trademark "copper top" portion of the battery's overlay wrapping). Narrated by actor Jeff Bridges, these campaigns show people using the battery to power the devices they find most important: everything from a Defibrillator to a BrickHouse Child Locator.[11]

See also

Further reading

  • Hintz, Eric S., “Portable Power: Inventor Samuel Ruben and the Birth of Duracell,” Technology and Culture, 50 (Jan. 2009), 24–57.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Duracell, Company history
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Power Matters Alliance Official website
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Duracell Advances 'Trusted Everywhere' Brand Name To Flash Memory Products
  10. ↑ Duracell® Introduces Quantum™ The World’s Most Advanced Alkaline Battery
  11. ↑ http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/child-locator.html

External links


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