Battery Market Brands Growing, say Manbat, Johnson MDs

The UK battery market is seeing branded products in growth at the expense of private labels, though the latter still hold over two-thirds of the total market, according to Paul Matarewicz, the managing director of Johnson Controls Batteries and VARTA. Meanwhile, Manbat’s MD, Steve Sheppard believes that the rising brand awareness in the UK is a result of the general economic slump, to which consumers are responding with a desire for greater reliability and longer lifespan.

Matarewicz estimates that the size of the total UK battery aftermarket (including automotive, LCV and commercial vehicles and excluding the original equipment market) is 4.5 million units per annum. Of this figure, he believes that the split between private labels and brand names is around 70:30, though this ratio is changing within the current economic climate, with brand names seeing growth. In terms of the market share between what Matarewicz sees as the five major names, he believes that VARTA has the largest slice of the market, with 6.5 per cent, though Yuasa and Banner remain close. Bosch and Exide, he says, round out the range of brand names with significant shares in the UK market.

Explaining the trend towards growth in the “name” brands and decline in private labels, Sheppard believes that it is in part because people who usually change their car regularly are delaying the change. In doing so, he theorises, drivers are more likely to fit a recognised brand because they have more interest in the vehicle’s long-term reliability. If they were selling it on, he says, they would be less brand conscious. In keeping a car for longer, he continues, drivers could be going to independent garages for servicing rather than the dealer, meaning that they could be paying substantially less than before, even when a branded battery is fitted.
 
In terms of new technology, Matarewicz is convinced that the current economic climate has taken its toll on developments. Because vehicle manufacturer’s are needing to cut costs, progressions such as AGM technology are put back in favour of cheaper existing technology, which continues to yield acceptable results. In addition, the cost cutting measures have left the manufacturers with a dilemma: some are going to smaller engines, some stop/start technology and others are moving towards hybrid solutions. This diversity has slowed down battery development, because there is no one obvious path to research and existing battery technology can already serve these interim solutions. Before a single development reveals its importance over others, it seems battery manufacturers must bide their time in order to take their cues from the vehicle markets’ needs.