Duracell estimates grow 5% this year

Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett''s investment fund, is the new owner of Duracell. The brand, which has just become an independent company portable power, with focus on alkaline and rechargeable batteries, as well as boots, is now known as Duracell Company. The expectation for this year, according to Rafael Gisse, General Manager in Brazil, is to follow the progress of the battery market, which reached 4.9 percent in value last year, according to data from Nielsen. "Our bet is on alkaline batteries, large potential segment, growing 5.7% in value per year. Currently, accounts for only 40% of the batteries sold in the country. As the alkaline batteries are more expensive, are second to those of zinc, even lasting up to ten times more in the case of Duracell, "explained Gisse on Thursday (24/03), during meeting with the press. Another bet of the new Duracell will be in portable power category.
The Duracell is the world leader in alkaline batteries. In Brazil, accounts for 47.2% of segment sales in value. To reach your goal this year, one of the first measures of the new company, which is in the midst of a process to stabilize the operation, was to increase the time. Before, as a mark of P&G, she had a team of only three professionals. Today is 23. Another initiative is to improve the distribution of goods. "We transferred our CD from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo. As we don''t have factory here, we centralized all imports of the products in a single firm, DHL. This has benefited us in time and expense. We will also seek new partnerships with distributors to reach more points of sale throughout Brazil and in less time. The indirect food, where we sell more, "said Gisse.
The company does not intend to do releases this year. But will have a new target for communication and marketing: the professionals, whose work equipment depend on batteries, case of photographers, and also parents, on behalf of electronic toys bought for the kids. "They are heavy user and the idea is to show that they can trust our alkaline batteries, especially the last two releases, the Quantun and Duralock. In addition, our campaigns will follow showing the difference between alkaline zinc segment asc. We realize that the Brazilian still can''t differentiate very well these two products, "said Paula Neves, responsible for marketing of the company in Brazil. Since this is a category for souvenir shopping (48%), Paula even pointed out that the batteries can''t be absent at the checkstand. "It is also interesting to have extra points in the sections of toys, electronics, Bazaar", recommends. Between the months of September and December, depending on the children''s day and Christmas, sales reach 40% increase. It is therefore essential to increase the exposure in stores. Versions AA and AAA are the most sold.