Exide Technologies Business Report FY2010
Business Highlights
Financial Overview |
(in thousand dollars) |
FY2010 | FY2009 | Rate of change (%) | Factors | |
Consolidated figures | ||||
Sales | 2,887,516 | 2,685,808 | 7.5 | - |
Gross profit | 564,429 | 538,096 | 4.9 | - |
Sales results in the Transportation segment | ||||
Transportation Americas |
942,014 | 922,629 | 2.1 | 1) |
Transportation European and ROW | 922,870 | 824,190 | 12.0 | 2) |
Factors
Transportation segment
1)
-Transportation Americas net sales, excluding the foreign currency translation impact, increased 1.2% due to increase in OEM unit sales and $25.0 million impact of lead related price increases, partially offset by a decline in aftermarket unit sales and third party lead sales. Third-party lead sales for fiscal 2011 were approximately $10.1 million lower than such third-party sales in fiscal 2010.
2)
-Transportation Europe and ROW net sales, excluding foreign currency translation, increased 16.4% mainly due to higher unit sales in both the aftermarket and OEM channels and $66.8 million impact of lead related pricing actions.
Contracts
-The Company announces a new supplier agreement with Chrysler. Exide will begin shipping flooded lead-acid batteries, produced at its Bristol, Tennessee, U.S. facility, to the automaker in July 2011 and then transition to supplying Exide's lead-acid AGM (absorbent glass mat) batteries from its recently expanded Columbus, Georgia Facility during the period of agreement. Exide batteries will be used for new platforms commencing in model year 2012. Exide currently supplies batteries to the Chrysler facility in Toluca, Mexico which produces the Fiat 500 passenger car. (From a press release on January 11, 2011)Awards
-Awarded the Supplier of the Year from Saab Automobile in February 2011. Exide is supplying SLI (starting, lighting, ignition) batteries to Saab. (From a press release on March 22, 2011)-The Company received a 2009 Supplier Diversity Special Recognition Award from Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA). Exide supplies starting batteries to Toyota for its North American-produced Avalon, Camry, Corolla, and Matrix cars, Venza crossover sedans, Highlander and Sequoia sport-utility vehicles and Tundra trucks. (From a press release on March 25, 2010)
R&D
R&D Structure
-During fiscal 2011, the Company added approximately 20 technical employees to its research and development organization, primarily in Milton, Georgia and Büdingen, Germany. These additional resources will enable the R&D function to focus on longer-term development opportunities as well as ongoing business support.Technological Alliance
-In the first quarter of fiscal 2010, the Company signed a technology development agreement with NanoTerra, a nano-technology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts that specializes in surface chemistry and surface engineering. Also in the first quarter of fiscal 2010, the Company signed a memorandum of understanding with Axion Power, an advanced lead-acid development company in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. In the second quarter of fiscal 2010, the Company signed a three-way Cooperative Research & Development Agreement (“CRADA”) with Savannah River National Laboratory and the University of Idaho to study the benefits of hollow glass microspheres in lead-acid batteries. The first research phase of these agreements has been completed. These projects are now planned to progress to the development phase.Patent, Trademarks and Licenses
-The Company currently owns approximately 281 trademarks and maintains licenses from others to use approximately 12 trademarks worldwide.The Company has generated a number of patents in the operation of its business and currently owns all or a partial interest in greater than 274 patents and applications for patents pending worldwide.