Hi lne937s, if there has or has not been any transfer of technology, innovations, synergies or economies of scale since JCI sold Clarios, I'm pretty far removed from that activity, partly by design. As the guy with the keys to the Optima Twitter account, they generally don't share such news or developments with me, until they're ready for the whole world to know.
Hi SamusFarron, you have quite a few questions, so I want to make sure I give the most complete answers I can to all of them, so I apologize in advance for my lengthy response, but appreciate your willingness to ask. If you have more questions, ask away. Optima has been the market leader in the premium battery space (and enthusiast market) by a pretty significant margin since we created it. I'll admit I was pretty frustrated at one point, that our fitment tail was shrinking and the last new battery size we came out with was for the Prius. However, that perspective changed, when I was at our rig at an NHRA race several years ago and was approached by the owner of another aftermarket battery brand (popular in drag racing circles), who proceeded to try and pitch me on having Optima acquire their brand.
I don't think he realized how low I was on the totem pole, but since he was offering, I started asking questions- How much volume do you sell annually? What is your warranty rate? I was stunned by both answers and coming out with a Prius battery suddenly made a whole lot more sense to me. There are millions of Prius on the road and hardly anyone offering a DS46B24R battery. There might only be a couple thousand 16-volt drag cars in the world, this guy wasn't even selling 10,000 batteries per year and had a double-digit warranty rate that would close our doors. It wasn't that his batteries were of poor quality, but more of a case of drag racers not taking proper care of their batteries and his retailers not following proper warranty procedure- first attempt to charge, then load test to confirm warranty service is needed before replacement.
Like us, many of the “bad” batteries returned to his company under warranty were “discharge-only” and worked fine, when properly-recharged. As a larger brand, we are better-equipped to absorb those unnecessary warranty returns (and the negative reviews), but it sliced his margins razor thin and seemed like it wore him out. The same is true for many other smaller brands, which is why you'll see some of them include language in their warranties about minimum voltage levels (some will void warranties if battery voltage is found to be below 10.5 volts). The reality is that we have more retailers selling our batteries than many of the other premium brands have batteries to sell, so the volume of conversation about our products, both positive and negative, will be much larger. We try our best to train retailers to provide the best service they can for their customers and we try to educate consumers as best we can to maximize battery performance and lifespan.
So on the subject of our Monterrey facility, that was an addition initially and not a move. Unlike most of the brands sold in the US, Optima is a global brand, sold in more than 150 countries around the world and a significant percentage of our batteries are sold outside the US. Demand in the early-2000s was increasing to the point, that it made sense to add a second facility to service international markets. At the same time, the last primary lead refinery in the US announced their closing, so the handful of batteries that use 99.99% pure virgin lead, would be sourcing it from Central and South America.
When the economy tanked, demand for premium batteries did as well and the decision-makers at our company were left with the hard choice to close one of our production facilities. While they both made excellent batteries, one was brand-new, much closer to lead suppliers and much closer to international shipping. Contrary to popular belief, the most-expensive part of manufacturing batteries is not labor, but moving the lead. As you can see from the video tour, our production process is largely-automated and human hands rarely touch our batteries until they get hooked up on formation tables. Moving lead from the mine (or recycling center for most other batteries) to the refinery, to the factory, to the end-users is the most expensive part of making a battery, which is why most battery production facilities are close to population centers, auto assembly facilities and seaports.
Regardless of what the margin is on our products, one of the basic tenants of running any business is that it is far less expensive to keep an existing customer, than it is to acquire a new one. To suggest that we don't care if we get repeat business because we make a bunch of money off an initial sale just doesn't hold water. Our best salespeople are customers like you, who had great experiences with their Optima and share that experience with others. Most satisfied customers never take the time to express that satisfaction, while a far higher percentage of dis-satisfied customers will go out of their way to tell everyone they know to avoid a product that they felt didn't meet their expectations. Most of what I do on forums doesn't involve selling, but helping people sort through electrical issues. However, if I'm lucky enough to find someone describing any battery as “bulletproof,” I'm happy to show them what that really looks like.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries
