Motive power Inci Aku

MOTIVE POWER

Inci Aku is a well established brand leader in the manufacture of batteries for the automotive industry and is now expanding into new market sectors. Philip Yorke discovered a company with plenty of options and a strategy for ambitious growth when he talked to Göksel Paker, the company’s CEO.

Inci Aku was founded in Turkey by Cedvet Inci in 1984, and with a special commitment to technological development and customer service, the company has seen continuous growth. Highlights include a joint venture with CEAC of France in 1993, becoming partners with Exide of USA by acquisition of CEAC by Exide in 1995, the opening of a major new plant in the Ukraine in 1998, end of partnership and regain of 100 per cent shares to İnci Group in 2005, obtaining a Ford Q1 certificate in 2006 and becoming an ‘A’ class supplier for Volvo Trucks in 2009, opening an R&D centre in 2009.

Today the company remains a private, family-owned business and is active on four continents and 67 countries. It is also the original equipment supplier to many domestic and international automotive manufacturers.

Inci Aku belongs to the Inci Group which comprises 15 autonomous companies in Turkey and employs approximately 1900 people. New capabilities

Inci Holding began by manufacturing automotive parts including wheels and accessories, before moving into the manufacture of batteries in 1984. The battery company was established at Manisa in Turkey, where the company continues to operate. Currently it has three key production facilities and is building a major new production plant of more than 100,000 m2 in Manisa. It will be an eco-friendly facility with a Breeam Certification. This brand new factory will incorporate a closed area of over 70,000 m2. From this new facility Inci Aku will also produce industrial batteries for both motive power and reserve power applications in addition to starter batteries.

Paker said, “We are enlarging our product portfolio in a significant way. Our success has been based on our ability to produce a range of high-quality starter batteries for the automotive market and be flexible enough to meet the challenges of a changing marketplace. We started producing starter batteries with a licence from an Austrian Company called Barren and subsequently entered into a joint venture with Ceac after the acquisition with Exide. However, today we are moving into the production of both motive power batteries and reserve power batteries. We have already had experience with the production of motive power batteries. As from the 90s, we are assembling motive power batteries. “The demand for these new special duty batteries is coming from our existing customer base as well as from some new customers. We are also increasing our capabilities at our other primary production plants and in particular at our starter battery plant in the Ukraine where we are continuing to invest in order to increase capacity. We have also recently bought a recycling plant in Romania, which will double our recycling capability. Recycling is an increasingly important aspect of our customer service package

SE.R.I. is a Group of companies operating, among others, in the battery fi eld, where it can count on a series of well known brand names, such as LA ITAL PLASTICA s.r.l., I.C.S. s.r.l., SERI RECYCLING s.r.l. and SERI PLANT DIVISION s.r.l.

Strada Provinciale per Gioia,Centro Aziendale Quercete, 81016 San Potito Sannitico (CE), Italy T: +39 0823 786235 – F: +39 0823 543828 – E: info@serihg.it – www.serihg.com

LA ITAL PLASTICA s.r.l. (formerly PLASTAM S.P.A.) is a company boasting over 50 years of activity in the moulding of plastic containers, lids and accessories for traction and stationary accumulators. From its two plants in Melzo (Italy) and Arras (France) it currently supplies battery industries all over the world. The company directly designs and builds its own moulds, which, together with a well established know-how, represent the technological asset enabling the company to reliably meet new market requirements with top quality products.

Via Bruno Buozzi 9, 20066 Melzo (MI), Italy T: +39 02 9541661 – F: +39 02 95416629 – E: info@lipsrl.com – www.lipsrl.com

I.C.S. s.r.l. recently joined the SE.R.I. team, bringing more than 80 years of experience in plastic moulding and moulds manufacturing. The two plants in Italy, Canonica d’Adda and Avellino, are shipping starter battery containers, covers and accessories to Europe, North Africa and the United States. A big portion of the OE/OES batteries in Europe is assembled today with ICS components, for this reason ICS constantly operates in team with battery manufacturers for the development and homologation of its products.

Via Bergamo 3, 24040 Canonica d’Adda (BG), Italy T: +39 02 90955511 – F: +39 02 9094165 – E: info@ics-italy.it – www.ics-italy.it

SERI RECYCLING s.r.l. is a leading company in the production of reprocessed polypropylene from exhausted batteries and PP compounds for the automotive industry, with a capacity of more than 18.000 mton/year. It also operates in the market of metal trading, especially crude lead, soft lead and lead alloys.

Strada Provinciale per Gioia,Centro Aziendale Quercete, 81016 San Potito Sannitico (CE), Italy T: +39 0823 786235 – F: +39 0823 543828 – E: info@serihg.it – www.serihg.com

SERI PLANT DIVISION s.r.l. has a consolidated experience in design, construction and operation of secondary lead production plants from spent lead acid batteries. The company is able to build complete turnkey plants with capacities up to 150.000 mton/year.

Strada Provinciale per Gioia,Centro Aziendale Quercete, 81016 San Potito Sannitico (CE), Italy T: +39 0823 786235 – F: +39 0823 543828 – E: info@serihg.it – www.serihg.com

and we take our responsibilities concerning the environment very seriously at Inci Aku.”

With today’s fast-moving technological developments, the need for a more diverse range of power supplies has become evident.

Top-of-the-range vehicles with sophisticated electronic systems require more power than ever before, whilst smaller and more standard vehicles require less power. Inci Aku brand provides a range of three basic batteries to meet these demands: Nano Gold, Formul A and Supr A. The company also produces commercial vehicle batteries and manufactures products under licence for its other well-known brands such as EAS, Hugel and Bizzaro.

Expanding global reach

Traditionally Ici Aku has focused on serving the Russian CIS countries from its facilities in the Ukraine. However, during the last decade the company has established the Middle East as the main market for its products. This success acted as a springboard for its move into North and South Africa. Adding to its expanding geographic reach, Inci Aku has also become well established in the European marketplace and provides starter batteries for a number of leading European automotive brands.

Paker added, “We are planning to grow in different markets with different products organically, but we are keeping our

options open with regard to the possibility of acquisitions in the future. We have our own dedicated research and development centre in Turkey with over 60 specialist engineers working on the development of new products, as well as increasing the performance of our existing range. This is all part of a five year strategic plan to deliver the battery products of the future and to meet our customer’s expectations.

“Our strategy for the future includes the development of Scope batteries for electrically driven cars and we have also been working with lithium batteries for the last four years and have produced prototypes in association with our local producers. Currently there is no competition in Turkey for the manufacture of lithium batteries, but we know that the Japanese are coming to Europe.”

Enhancing distribution and warehousing

With its growing portfolio of products and increasing demands for its products, the company has developed a worldwide network of dedicated distributors. In each of the 67 countries where Inci Aku is operational the company has at least one wellestablished main distributor in place, with many more in the larger, more populous countries. It has also opened a new warehouse in Germany near Dusseldorf to serve its western European customers and plans are well advanced to significantly increase the size of this facility. However, some of Inci Aku’s customers prefer to buy directly from the manufacturing base in Turkey. n