Eveready Industries India Ltd, the second largest manufacturer of carbon zinc batteries in the world, has announced a hike in prices of its complete range of dry cell batteries today.
Deepak Khaitan, vice chairman and managing director of Eveready Industries, said, “Over the past 4-5 months there has been a continuous upward climb in the prices of zinc, a key raw material for making batteries, which has adversely impacted the manufacturing cost of carbon zinc batteries. The product segment also had to take on a hike in excise duty from 8 per cent to 10 per cent in the 2010 Union Budget. These have left us with very little option but to pass on a part of the increase in costs to the market. We are also increasing the maximum retail price of all types of batteries by 5 per cent to 10 per cent with immediate effect.”
Eveready is the world’s second largest producer of carbon zinc batteries selling about 1.2 billion batteries annually. Apart from dry cell batteries, Eveready offers a basket of FMCG products. This includes torches, rechargeable batteries, CFL & GLS lamps, packet tea and mosquito repellents.
Eveready has an extensive distribution network of 4,000 dealers reaching all the way up to 5,000 population towns.
In the last one year, Eveready has also launched a range of LED-based lanterns aimed at semi/non-electrified households in rural areas of India providing safe, efficient lighting which are cheaper than even kerosene lanterns in the long run.
