Battery maker opens branch
By Marc Stewart
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS
East Penn Manufacturing Co., a big national battery manufacturer based in Lyon Station, Pa., has opened a wholesale branch in Spokane Valley called Deka Batteries & Accessories.
The Spokane Valley branch, which opened at 3808 N. Sullivan, in the big Spokane Business & Industrial Park, earlier this month, employs three people, and the company plans to add up to seven more people there, says Sandy Crase, the company’s Portland-based Northwest district manager.
The company is leasing about 8,700 square feet of floor space, which will hold up to 10,000 batteries. That facility will serve retail automotive chains, such as Motion Auto Supply, and businesses that service large trucks, in Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Western Montana, Crase says.
East Penn employs more than 5,000 people in the U.S. and Canada. The company has 86 branches that distribute its batteries and accessories.
East Penn produces about 20 million batteries annually at its plant in Pennsylvania, Crase says. East Penn makes thousands of sizes and types of lead-acid batteries, battery accessories, and related components.
Many of its batteries are used in tractor-trailers and other heavy industrial equipment, such as bulldozers. The company was established in 1946.