Douglas Battery Manufacturing Co. (Winston-Salem, NC) announced that it will downsize its automotive division and allocate more resources into its industrial division. The restructuring could displace as many as 350 employees in Winston-Salem.
"The cost of our primary raw material -- lead -- has almost doubled since last year," said company President Charles Douglas. "Battery imports have increased the already extreme pressures on pricing. While we have been aggressively cutting expenses and increasing prices, it is very difficult to offset such rapidly increasing costs."
The company intends to continue operating the Douglas Battery Service Co., which is its retail location in Winston-Salem. The industrial division, which was started in the 1950s, manufactures, sells and distributes lead-acid batteries for motive power and stationary applications.
