Duracell
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Founded | 1924 (as P.R. Mallory Company) |
| Founders |
Samuel Ruben Philip Mallory |
| Headquarters |
Bethel, Connecticut, United States Geneva, Switzerland |
| Products | Batteries and smart power systems |
| Revenue | US$2 billion (2015) |
|
Number of employees
|
2,700 |
| Parent | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Subsidiaries | Duracell (UK) Limited Duracell China Limited Duracell Batteries B.V.B.A Duracell Batteries Limited |
| Website | www |
Duracell Inc. is an American manufacturing company owned by Berkshire Hathaway that produces batteries and smart power systems. The company has its origins in the 1920s, through the work of Samuel Ruben and Philip Mallory, and the formation of the P.R. Mallory Company.
Through a number of corporate mergers and acquisitions, Duracell came to be owned by the consumer products conglomerate Procter & Gamble (P&G). In November 2014, P&G reached an agreement to sell the company to Berkshire Hathaway through a transfer of shares. Under the deal, Berkshire Hathaway exchanged the shares it held in P&G for ownership of the Duracell business.
Duracell originated via the partnership of scientist Samuel Ruben and businessman Philip Rogers Mallory, who met during the 1920s. The P.R. Mallory Company of Burlington, Massachusetts, United States, relocated its headquarters to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1924. The company produced mercury batteries for military equipment, trumping the carbon-zinc batteries used then in virtually all applications. During the 1950s, Kodak introduced cameras with a flash. The design required a new cell size, and size AAA was developed.
In 1964, the term "Duracell" was introduced as a brand, from "durable cell." Until 1980, the batteries also bore the Mallory brand.
The name came from a conversation with a shop owner. The executive called the company and asked if A-1 Durable Carpet & Fabric Specialist Inc. had a trademark on the name Durable. The executive spoke to the son of the cleaning company, Steven Nobrega. The executive explained how they were thinking of calling a new battery that had a copper cell "Durable Cell" and asked how the name suited the company. The owner's son explained that his father was the owner of a franchise originally called "Duraclean". His father had chosen the new company name for the company by dropping the clean in "Duraclean" and added able to Dura to keep the name similar.
P.R. Mallory was acquired by Dart Industries in 1978, which in turn, merged with Kraft in 1980. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought Duracell in 1988 and took the company public in 1989. It was acquired for $7 billion by Gillette in 1996.
...
Wikipedia