Eveready East Africa PLC has announced the launch of its own brand of dry cell batteries under its brand name TURBO®.
In a shareholder announcement, the Board of Directors of Eveready East Africa Ltd said the action is key in actualizing a major element of its 2013-17 Strategic Plan intended to focus the business to addressing key consumer needs and mitigate a major risk engrained in its previous business model.
While addressing the media at the Company’s head offices in Nairobi, the Managing Director said that the TURBO® range of portable power products fully addresses its consumer’s requirements for portable power solutions.
The TURBO® range comprises dry cell batteries (in AA, AAA, c, D and 9 volt sizes in both Alkaline and Carbon Zinc constructions), portable flashlights (both rechargeable and non-rechargeable constructions), light bulbs and car batteries.
In what is a demonstration of Eveready’s dedication to prioritizing and focusing pointedly on its consumers in the market, Jackson Mutua said that Eveready’s action in extending its TURBO® brand is a crucial milestone that “supports Eveready’s ambitious diversification agenda by giving Eveready the much needed independence and creative control over its supply chain and the products that it offers to its consumers.”
The Managing Director clarified that “Our business was greatly limited under the previous arrangement with Energizer and its subsidiaries and we could not therefore respond correctly to market changes by availing the kind of products that our consumers want, or adopt the kind of pricing and other strategies that was suitable for this market in order to keep up with changes in our operating space.”
Mutua added that “as a Company with a strong distribution infrastructure developed over 49 years, we possess significant and specific comparative advantage that we will leverage on to grow our business.”
He highlighted that TURBO® dry cell batteries and flashlights are now available to its consumers in the market.
In the announcement, the Board indicated that the brand ownership enables Eveready deal conclusively with a significant risk to its business by enabling the Company invest in building equity in its own brand.
The Company has since its inception in 1967, produced and distributed Energizer Inc.’s brands in the market. Energizer Inc. USA presently owns 10.5% of the Company’s issued stock. In the Shareholder Announcement,
The Board of Eveready said that in furtherance of its objectives, it opted not to take up a new distribution arrangement offered to it by Energizer’s subsidiary as the terms were quite onerous and therefore not in the best interest of the business to do so.
Speaking at a media briefing, Mutua said that the own brand arrangement would ensure business growth and long-term business sustainability.
The Company is pursuing various initiatives as part of its five-year strategy aimed at increasing the size of its business through diversification and increasing efficiency in its business processes.
It recently signed up a distribution partnership with Clorox® Sub Saharan Africa Ltd to distribute the Clorox® bleach in the Kenyan market while at the same time introducing its brand of powder washing detergent, Everclean® to the Kenyan consumer, complementing its newly adopted retail focused business model.
Remarking on these developments, Mutua said that they are a part of Eveready’s strategic focus on its consumer.
"We will continue prioritizing transformation of the business as we progress on our journey to become a ‘partner of choice in the provision of lifestyle products” for our suppliers, investors, customers and consumers regionally.
The NSE-listed company is banking on its renewed business model to turnaround its business.