Renewed focus on top tier market sectors

Back in early March 2020, before the UK and rest of the world went into lockdown, the former DBS Leoch company was acquired by Leoch, one of the largest battery manufacturers in the world. The new company, Leoch Battery UK Ltd has now become the full UK subsidiary of Leoch International.

As part of a broader strategy to capitalise on this major opportunity, Leoch Battery UK is reaffirming its commitment to the company’s targeted top tier market sectors and is focused on restructuring these markets into three ‘families’.

We talked to Vanessa Human, Marketing Director for Leoch Battery UK about how this new organisational structure impacts the core markets in which the company now operates…

What’s the Leoch definition of the three new sectors – Motive, Transportation and Network Power? And which particular sub-sections come under each main sector heading?

The categorisation ‘Motive’ covers the largest amount of market sectors we operate in as Leoch Battery UK. As the term suggests, generally the need is to generate ‘motion’ from the battery’s energy, whether it’s propulsion of a golf cart, a forklift truck or an electric boat, plus many other applications. The battery is regularly discharged using most of its capacity, often in demanding temperatures and over a long working life. The ability to operate under partial state of charge conditions is often a key requirement.

Sub-markets in the Motive category include: Aerial Work Platforms, Cleaning & Maintenance, Electric Vehicles, Golf, Marine, Materials Handling, Mobility and Leisure Vehicles (Motorhomes, Caravans and Vehicle Conversions).

‘Transportation’ batteries are also known as SLI (starting, lighting and ignition), starter or cranking batteries. To start an engine, the battery delivers a small part of its capacity in a short, high circuit burst (measured in CCA: Cold Cranking Amps). These batteries are used whenever an engine needs to be started, to kick start the mechanical components within.

Sub-markets here include:Automotive, Commercial and Motorcycle.

‘Network Power’ batteries are used in communication networks and data centres as back-up power for critical systems, ranging from huge industrial installations to smaller domestic alarms.

Network Power sub-markets include: Security & General Purpose; Signalling and Mobile Energy; Solar & Renewables; Telecoms and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies).

Prior to the takeover, DBS Leoch had a broad range of target sectors – what’s the strategic decision behind consolidating to these three? Is the UK strategy consistent with the rest of Leoch’s worldwide operations or are there any core differences?

We still have a broad range of target sectors, however, we have divided our markets into three top sections to mirror the categories used by our parent company Leoch. This enables brand consistency across Europe; we work closely with the Leoch European headquarters in Athens and they too are adopting this classification. Certain territories have greater expertise in different market sectors; with the UK now being directly part of the Leoch company, it’s easier to share information and knowledge across geographical areas.

How will this new approach change Leoch operationally? What does this restructuring mean for UK customers?

There will be no operational implications of the change but from a marketing and customer point of view, communications will be more consistent with the same brand visuals being used across Europe. In time, we anticipate that the brand changes that we are making in Europe will be adopted globally, further reinforcing the strength of the Leoch brand.

As we roll out new packaging styles alongside our new brand guidelines, customers will notice a greater degree of synergy across product packaging, and again, the brand identity that we promote will have an even stronger presence on the shelves of our retail customers. Within certain product groups, we will move towards Leoch part numbers in the UK, although for core, consumer-based batteries especially, we will be retaining the old system of part codes used by DBS Leoch in the UK so products will feature dual part codes (the ‘old’ codes and the Leoch part codes).

If you have any questions about this new restructuring affects your business with Leoch Battery UK, call 01858 433330 or email sales.uk@leoch.com