HBL Ignite; 021

Ignite batteries are a brand manufactured by the large company Indian company HBL;

Taken from their website; 

"HBL Power Systems Ltd is a listed Indian company, in business since 1977, with a focus on engineered products and services.

Our initial business strategy was to identify technology gaps in India that the company could fill by 'indigenous efforts'.

The first products selected and successfully developed were Aircraft batteries - eventually leading to HBL offering the worlds widest range of specialized batteries.

Our expertise in batteries generated opportunities and ideas to diversify. The company moved into new businesses and markets that utilise our batteries, such as industrial electronics, defense electronics, and railway electronic signaling.

Recent diversification, leveraging the companies engineering strengths, has led to new businesses in precision manufacturing, spun reinforced concrete and 'green' technology products.

Our success has been built serving some of the world's most demanding customers and applications. We would value your opportunity to serve your business."

Interesting stuff, finding the first "Indian"-brand battery... even if it is still made in China. You'd think that Indian labour was cheaper than Chinese, but I guess not...

Ningli Super Heavy Duty; 020

Ningli wasn't a brand I'd heard of, but I expected it to be one of the "generic" Chinese brands, and a quick look showed I was correct;

quoting from HiSupplier.com;

"Ningbo Nlingli Battery Co., Ltd. has been developed for more than 10 years, located in Wushan Industrial Zone, Xidian town Ninghai county Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province,China. 

Our company has advanced equipment and professional staff members for production, management and sale. All of our products have been certified through the International IEC. We also use automatic detection system to control product quality. Our company has registered a brand "Team Power " for our quality products. Our slogan is "power of cohesion; value of integrity". 

Our company has two production lines. We are specializing in the production of alkaline manganese batteries ,carbon-manganese batteries,and other batteries, with the models of LR03,LR6,LR14,LR20,R03,R6,R14,and R20."

Ever Ready; Old Red; 019

My goodness! I never expected to see this "blast from the past"... an old Ever Ready "red" battery!

Ever Ready Red 1

So, not to be confused with the still-existing company "Eveready" (note the lack of the extra "r"), this is a battery from the old British "Ever Ready Electrical Company"

Ever Ready Red 2

From the Wikipedia entry;

The British Ever Ready Electrical Company (BEREC) was a British electrical firm formed in 1906 as the export branch of the American Eveready Battery Company. In 1914 it became independent of its American parent company.

For decades the firm dominated the UK consumer battery market and had several factories in the UK, the largest of which was built at Tanfield Lea, County Durham, in 1968. Other factories included Dawley, Four Ashes, Maldon, Newburn, London (Victoria Works and Forest Road) and Park Lane, Wolverhampton. The company's research effort was centred upon the Central Laboratories, later known as Group Technical Centre, in St. Ann's Road, Harringay, London N15. The company's head office was Ever Ready House in Whetstone, London N20. Overseas manufacturing sites included South Africa, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Jamaica. The company also included UK engineering divisions: Cramic Engineering and Toolrite.

In 1972, the company acquired J. A. Crabtree & Co, a manufacturer of electrical accessories.

The company was the subject of a hostile takeover by Hanson Trust in 1981. Hanson closed factories, cut jobs and sold the German (Daimon) and Italian (Superpila) subsidiaries to Duracell. Shortly before this the British Ever Ready Electrical Company changed its name to Berec Group. From the 1950s the BEREC name was only used for exports of batteries and radio sets (as British Ever Ready Export Company). Some Daimon batteries were branded BEREC as were some produced in Switzerland. One of Hanson's first decisions was to revert from BEREC back to Ever Ready as the UK brand.

In 1992, the company was sold by Hanson Trust to Ralston Purina, owners of the American Eveready company, and is now a part of Energizer Holdings. The company closed Tanfield Lea, its last UK factory, in 1996.[4] Production of some Ever Ready batteries (PP6, PP7 and PP9) continued in the UK until 1999 by Univercell Battery Company, located close to the old Dawley factory using the original machinery.

1906 to 1999; just 6 years short of 100 years... shame.

Diall; 018

Diall;

Diall 1

So, what or who is Diall... ? I thought seeing the "Made in Germany" and the Czech Republic-type text, I expected it to be a German brand of some sort... but it turns out it's actually a brand of the large "Kingfisher" chain.

Diall 2

"Diall" stands for "Do It All", or shortened version of it.

From their website;

"Kingfisher plc is an international home improvement company with 1,302 stores in 10 countries across Europe, Russia and Turkey, supported by a team of 79,000 colleagues.

We offer DIY and home improvement products and services to nearly six million customers who shop in our stores and through our digital channels every week. Our customers are everyone wanting to improve their home, as well as the experts and trade professionals who help them.

We believe everyone should have a home they feel good about, so our purpose is to make home improvement accessible for everyone."

Coles; 017

Coles;

Coles Alkaline + 1

 Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group.

Coles Alkaline+ 2

Guess this one must have come from an Australian-purchased item, or perhaps a gift from an Australian Granny to a beloved Grandchild?

If so, at least it was something nice, and not a horrible jumper or similar...

Vinnic aka Vinnie; 016

No, it's not "Vinnie" batteries, as I first thought and named these images... it's actually "Vinnic", the name of a Chinese battery manufacturer since 1980. For some reason when I grabbed this example from out of the battery recycling bin in my local WH Smiths, i'd been chuckling to myself about the name... until I realised my mistake.

Vinnic, aka Chung Pak or "CP" was originally set up by a group and only had a total of 7 staff in their 3,000 square feet factory based at Yau Tong Bay.

Vinnic 1

Chung Pak use an evergreen tree design to acknowledge its pioneer status in the industry as to the importance and the commitment it makes to environmentally friendly production over the past 30-odd  years. Originally,  the company specialized in producing button cell batteries, making around 1 to 2 million pieces per month. As they grew into other markets over the years, they now employ over 2500 staff across China.

Chung Pak strives to be a green enterprise and has the slogan "Green Power for a Better Environment". They now boast sales in over 21 cities worldwide.

Vinnic 2

I think the real reason I like this Vinnic so much is their website design and choice of graphics; who couldn't like their "Power Ranger"-inspired Positive Power "Vinnic Man" character;

Vinnic Branding 1

You can tell he's a man with a lot of "high voltage" in his pants...

I suppose it's somewhat ironic that they themselves suffer from companies trying to "jump on" their name and branding by releasing copycat batteries, using names like"Vimic", "Vimie", "Vinhie" and "FA vinniG", "Viririi0", "Vinlec", "Vihlec", "Vlnhie" which as Vinnic themselves state "...are strikingly similar, if not identical, to the company and trademark and / or packaging on our battery products" and yet here they are re-using a very recognisable image for their own branding...

7DayShop.com; 015

Just who, or rather what, are 7DayShop.com? Obviously they are a website of one sort or another, but where does the "seven day" bit in their name come from? Is it because being online, they are "open" seven days a week, or do they have some sort of special 7 day bargain sale going on all the time?

Well, determined to find out a little more about the company, I had a look online and found that they are pretty much an electronics retailer, dating back to the year 2000 and based in Guernsey . In the last 18 years or so, 7DayShop has become an established online seller of photography, digital and computer products with over a million happy customers.

A few years ago, and after an initial "back of a shop" beginning,  40 local people picked and packed more than 4,000 different products, from USB drives to camera straps, all in their immaculate 32,000sq ft building. Their last success were framed canvas prints of customers' favourite photographs uploaded via website snapmad.com and then they seem to be thriving.

I can't say much about how they are doing now... what I did notice was that their blog (also hosted on their main site here) doesn't look to have had a post since October 2017 which is never a good sign. There's still positive feedback examples from late last year which is great, and perhaps whomever used to write the blog has left or simply not had the time to write anything new. Shame as there were some good articles on there, like this one and this one.

One of the more interesting aspects to 7DayShop's operations is that they are one of a growing number of "Offshore Fulfilment" companies, or in layman's terms, a company using the law to gain a tax advantage. To quote this Guardian article;

"Offshore fulfilment is a creature of happy accident and the ruthlessness of good entrepreneurs in exploiting tax advantages. When Britain began levying VAT in 1973, the Channel Islands – a "crown dependency", which is independent from the UK and has stayed outside the EU – were allowed to pre-pay VAT because fresh flowers and cream imports were perishable and filling in customs forms would catastrophically delay their entry. 

In 1983, these arrangements were superseded by an EU directive that established low value consignment relief (LVCR). This allowed member states to avoid collecting VAT on low-value imports where administrative costs were deemed excessive when set against tax receipts they generated. Britain set the bar at the highest possible figure, £18 – all goods below this price imported from outside the EU did not attract VAT.

VAT-free imports from the Channel Islands remained a cottage industry until 1998 when three bright 28-year-olds on Jersey, high-street sportswear retailers Richard Goulding and Simon Perrée and their computer-savvy friend Peter de Bourcier, started selling DVDs to UK mainland customers via Play.com. 

Envying the success of what is now one of the biggest dotcom businesses, the big boys belatedly waded in: Tesco set up its own web operation called Tesco Jersey; Asda, HMV and others followed. In 2006, the transfer of goods from the UK to Jersey so they could be shipped back VAT-free to the mainland was described by Jersey's then economic development minister as "a complete sham" and Tesco and others were expelled from the island. 

The VAT loophole was too lucrative to give up, though: Tesco switched its CD and DVD website to Switzerland before quietly returning to the Channel Islands via an outsourcing fulfilment firm, The Hut Group. In 2008, the VAT loophole trade was worth £110m according to the Treasury; critics allege it is now far higher, with greetings card business Moonpig and computer game retailers thriving offshore."

I don't have a particular feeling either way for this... I know one can read all about how Starbucks avoids paying UK Tax, but at the end of the day, if it means cheaper goods, coffee, and services for me, then great. I personally think I already pay a huge amount of my income out by way of taxes and charges to the largely useless Government, and so if a celebrity like Jimmy Carr finds a way to avoid paying more tax, then good on him.

IKEA; 014

What I like about these IKEA "Alkalisk" batteries is that they are very much in-line with their companies furniture products; 

IKEA Alkalisk 1

Clean and simple design, not fussy or over-elaborate. In fact, not fussy to the extent that the other side of the battery is literally blank;

IKEA Alkalisk 2

Great stuff. ;-)

Maplin; 013

 As The Beatles might have said, "It was 10 years ago today, that Woolworth's high street shops went away... Sargent Pepper's Lonely Heart Shops Brands!" 

Is it really 10 years since Woolworth's closed its doors in Chelmsford High Street, and the rest of the UK? I can scarcely believe it is that long. With that one lighting of the fuse, it seemed to lead to the closing of many other well-loved and long-standing brands in the UK, among them Toys 'R' Us, Maplins, Poundworld, with HMV remaining open despite two brushes with going into administration. House of Fraser, Debenhams, New Look, Prezzo and an even larger number are reported to be struggling too.

While a little indifferent to some of these chains going, excluding Woolworth's which was a sad loss of a British institution, I felt a real tinge of sadness when Maplin closed down. I used to enjoy going in there when we were lucky enough to get our own Maplin store in Chelmsford (it replaced "Blockbuster Video" which was another sad loss), saving me having to shlep all the way over to Lakeside if I wanted something techie in a hurry. There just aren't any places in the High Street these days that sell things like SATA cables...

When I was growing up, Maplin was THE place to go and buy electronics and electronic components... the sort of place someone who was a member of their schools "Electronics Club" would go to, much like Games Workshop has its niche of customers (and it still has it's store in Chelmsford, thankfully). The business started in 1972, with the first stores opening just after this, so they were well-placed to ride the then boom in home computers during the early 1980s spawned by manufacturers such as Sinclair, Commodore International and Atari, all of these created opportunities for Maplin. They produced home build project kits such as speech synthesisers, memory expansion cards, extension keyboards, cables, and connectors to plug into these computers.

Maplin Alkaline 1

At the height of production of the home build kits Maplin's range was vast, with in-house designed power amplifiers, radio kits, a weather station and a full weather satellite receiving and display system and many others, as well as the Heathkit and Velleman ranges of kits. The catalogue, with its distinctive science fiction cover art by Lionel Jeans, contained hundreds of application circuits and hundreds of thousands of copies were distributed each year.

I was convinced that Maplin was the "UK arm" of the huge US companies Radioshack and Tandy but having done my research, I see I'm well off the mark. Tandy, of which we did have UK stores a long time ago, were indeed part of Radioshack but they had no direct relationship to Maplin as companies. In fact, I see that Radioshack itself went down in 2015.

Can you believe that Radioshack even had a "Battery of the Month" club! Members were allowed one "Enercell" battery per month, on production of their membership card. Very much a loss-leader, the offer attracted foot-traffic which then lead to more sales.

I can see why online retailers are so profitable these days; I'm very much of a "go and get it now" person, who would much rather go to a shop and buy something when I need it, rather than order it online and have to wait a few days for it. When I wanted to buy some extra memory for my laptop, I spent ages looking to places that might sell it over the counter and pretty much struck a blank. A Town, nay "City",  the only place I could come up with was "Currys" as a place that sold stand-alone memory at a reasonable price. That's in the whole of Chelmsford... 

Maplin Alkaline 2

Now, yes, there are smaller private shops that had it for sale, but these are small "one man" outfits, where the prices are far and above a chain-store price, and frankly astronomical when compared to online shops. 

Anyway, I'm rambling now, so let's get back to Maplins. Along with a wide range of electronic products Maplin sold batteries, usually their own brand. I don't recall them being particularly cheap nor exorbitantly expensive, but more of a "middle of the road" product. I don't think I ever bought any, and I suppose given they went under, nobody else did either.

In all honesty, although the staff were amazing and could help pretty much anyone out, they tended to have things priced far higher than anyone else and I left the store on a number of occasions frustrated that I'd found what I wanted but at a price I couldn't afford afford or even justify to myself. Even when they went into receivership and started their "closing down" sales, their final reduction prices on some things were actually still more expensive than places like Argos! God-only knows what the administrator was thinking here... I can't see the logic in it myself.

Do you lament a favourite store in your town that has long since gone, possibly closed down for good? 

I fondly remember the many times I used to wander around "InLines" (or was it "In-Lines"?), looking at all the weird and wonderful things they had. In-Lines, although whilst I can't find any pictures or mention of the store, was a chain of shops that sold... well, "gifts and novelties" I suppose... bit like somewhere like "Clinton Cards", but with a lot less emphasis on greetings cards, and more things like carpets, mugs, posters, home furnishings, jokes, gifts, party supplies, books, candy and stuff. They had a range of balloons, and even a printing set-up in our one, so you could buy a replica football top with your own name hot-foiled onto the back.

We still have something I bought from there, probably 20 or 30 years ago now; a "Bed Snake Bat".  ;-)

PIFCO; 011

Provincial Incandescent Fittings Company may not be a name that is immediately identifiable to most people, and even with my marginally "techy" background I couldn't place it... but putting on my Alan Turing hat, just looking at the initial letters gives you "PIFC", which I then realised was actually "PIFCO" which I have heard of.

PICFO 1

PIFCO are for me, a budget-priced electronics and electricals manufacturer. The best way to demonstrate that is to use what is commonly known as the "Argos Principle" (well, for me anyway).

I came up with this theorem a long time ago, as a customer of Argos, when I had an Epiphany when looking through the company's catalogue. For those of you that aren't familiar with Argos and can't be bothered to click the link, they are one of the last (or THE last?) catalogue-based shopping retailers I'm aware of in the UK; you walk into their High Street stores, and rather than having everything on sale out and visible, you instead have "stands" or kiosks which house a huge, thick, laminated each page catalogue, along with pens / pencils and order "forms". The idea is that you use the catalogue to find what you want to order, fill in the catalogue number on an order slip, and either take it to the till and pay, or take it to a self-service kiosk and pay by card in the same way. You then get an order number and proceed to the "collection point", and your goods are picked and conveyed to the collection point from the stock area. The idea here is that the tiny "show room" aka catalogue space allows for much more of the store space to be used for warehousing of the stock. 

IKEA springs to mind as another company that does this sort of "fill out an order form and collect it as you leave", but the difference to Argos is that IKEA still has all the items out on display for you to view physically, where as Argos doesn't; you are literally "trusting" the catalogue pictures and text.

Anyway, without going off at a tangent too much, the thing I always find with Argos was that if you shop for any given item, they will have a range of goods covering a range of prices. Let's take a simple filter coffee maker... they will have the cheapest (probably their own "Cookworks"-brand one) for something like £7, right up to a top-of-the-range "Heston Blumenthal" filter coffee maker, for £199.99, and everything in between. 

What I always find myself doing is despite having no money these days, I always subconsciously discount the cheapest item and usually the next two or three "up"... or in other words if there are 10 coffee makers, I'll discount 10, 9, and probably number 8, along with the most expensive 1, 2 and possibly 3, leaving me with a choice of just 4. 

What I didn't realise was that I'm not alone in doing this, and Argos knows it too; although I can't find anything online right now, I remember reading that we all look at lists like this and think "Oh, I don't want the cheapest one... that'll be junk... and I don't want to pay for the most expensive one, as that will just be over-the-top "name brand" no better than something cheaper.... No, I'll get whatever I can afford from the remaining middle 'chunk'."

Argos know this is how people tend to shop from "lists", be it online, in a catalogue or whatever, where groups of similar products are involved. They ensure that in each store they will always have more of the "middle band" goods, and only a limited number of the cheapest and the most expensive items. The same likely goes for their UK supply / buying strategy; don't buy 100,000 of each coffee maker; buy numbers based on where they sit in the price hierarchy; 10,000 of the expensive one, 10,000 of the cheapest one, and 100,000 of the mid-range ones.

Do you find you tend to use this approach, even if you've never considered it before?

PIFCO 2

Where was I? Oh yes, so PIFCO to me is a somewhat "lower" brand-name, along the lines of "Binatone" (another often cheapest option for any electricals in the Argos catalogue), rather than up there with the giants of name-brands like "Apple", "Sony" et al.

What I didn't realise was that the company has been in existence for over 100 years, originally established in Manchester in 1900, Provincial Incandescent Fittings Co or PIFCO as they are now better known, sold a wide range of lighting, stoves & household goods from the first oil filled heaters, to developments in lighting and domestic appliances.

Battery-wise, I don't recall seeing these for sale in any of the stores I visit, and have only encountered them already fitted as OEM batteries in some products (and not PIFCO ones, I mean... I think I bought a garden ultrasonic cat scarer once that came with batteries and they were PIFCO ones, and that was years ago) but I did find you can still buy them here, for example, although PIFCO as a brand was no longer being used by the actual owners, Russell Hobbs for some time, but was then licensed for use by one KB (Import and Export) Ltd in 2007 who went on to market a range of electrical items under the name.

Bit leaky this one, but it does look to be at least 7 years old as of 2019.

Infapower Rechargeable; 012

For a company that I've never heard of before, nor seen any batteries on sale anywhere for, Infapower's claims to be the fastest growing brand of rechargeable batteries in the UK and that they are the biggest selling brand in most independent wholesalers is a surprise... 

Infapower 1

Still, I'm always pleased to read about a British company doing well, even in a market dominated by imports. 

To quote from their website;

"Infapower® produce one the largest range of consumer rechargeable batteries in the country, helping to make Infapower the biggest British brand of rechargeable batteries. Using the same business principles, Infapower also produce a comprehensive range of high specification Torches & Lanterns, USB chargers, Mobile Phone Cables and Electrical Accessories. Recently we have introduced Computer Peripherals, Audio products and when a cup of tea is top priority, Kettles. Our small domestic appliances range now also includes Fan Heaters, Irons and Toasters."

Infapower 2

All of the products come in Infapower’s distinctive and eye-catching packaging, creating instant impact on display. Emphasis is placed on quality and durability. All products are developed and tested to ensure high standards of workmanship that offers the consumer performance, reliability and value for money.

That I will agree with; their design using the rainbow mosaic does make them unique in visual design, in a way that made Duracell's "copper-coloured top" a well-recognised branding amongst batteries and which is often plagiarised now by many Chinese manufacturers.

Infapower 3

Talking of rainbow designs, I know that the rainbow as a symbol is being used more and more within a Gay Pride context, but these designs are amongst my favourites so far for batteries. These are Xiaomi's rainbow-coloured "5 AA" batteries, which launched as as a pack of 10, with each battery being coloured differently. Although this dates from 2015, I can't find anything new about if they now sell single colour packs, for example, which is what I'd offer. Mind you, I can see that as a manufacturer and / or retailer, that may well see you out of pocket if no one wants yellow and you end up with stock left over you can't sell.

Xiaomi "5 AA"Rainbow Batteries 1

Have you used Infapower batteries? Where did you buy them?

Incidentally, posting this one has made me notice that this is actually a rechargeable battery, rather than a one-use alkaline one. It got me to thinking why are these rated at 1.2v rather than 1.5 volts that you see written on all the batteries and in all the user guides for battery equipment... so why the difference? 

Well, looking online I found this well-written eBay article which covers it very well. Worth a look.

Hmmm... now I'm a bit torn... should I post just single-use batteries, or "any" AA battery?

Wilko Extra "Baked Beans" Oranges Design; 010

If you've been a customer of "Wilko" aka "Wilkinson's" over the last few years, you may well have caught sight of these batteries where they usually hang up next to every till, and mainly because of their striking design;

Wilko Extra "Baked Beans" Oranges 1

The funny thing is, when I was recently "diving" for batteries in one store's dead battery container, I was very pleased to see this one at the bottom thinking that if any battery design deserved an award (Like the Oscars, but... er... "The Batties?") then it would be this one. I used to think that was an image of Baked Beans" for some reason, but looking at it a bit closer it's obviously not Baked Beans but oranges (I think?) instead.

Have a think as to why oranges (or Baked Beans) might be chosen for the design of an AA battery, whilst I tell you a bit about why Wilkinson's (as I always refer to it) is also known as "Wilko";

So, originally the company was founded back in 1930, and has always been run by the Wilkinson family, hence the name.  However in 2012, the family began to re-brand the stores as "Wilko", as this was the name that was in-use on their own-brand products, much like the direct polar opposite of how "Marks and Spencer" decided to drop their own-brand "St. Michael" name in 2000, having used it for 73 years.

Just after this in 2014, one side of the family sold all their holdings after an 84-year span in retail. Sources close to the retailer insisted the family has not fallen out, but that Ms Swann’s side of the family wanted to pursue “other business interests”. Their shareholding in the business has been sold to the other side of the Wilkinson family, which is led by Lisa Wilkinson, who is now the sole chairman.

Then, Wilkinson is likely to have been valued in excess of £500m in the transaction. In 2014, it reported sales of £1.53bn and pre-tax profits of £27.5m. Karin Swann and Lisa Wilkinson are the third generation of the family to run Wilkinsons.

Wilko Extra "Baked Beans" Oranges 2

The company’s founder, who is known as JK, had two children, Tony and Barbara Wilkinson, who were the second generation to run the business. Mrs Swann is Barbara’s daughter and Lisa Wilkinson is Tony’s daughter. It is Barbara’s side of the family that decided to cease being shareholders. This means that complete ownership of the retailer has passed to Tony Wilkinson, his wife Christine, and Lisa Wilkinson, who remains the family director.

So, any guesses as to why they have used oranges on the battery?

No, neither have I. 

;-)

[EDIT: 08/01/2019 08:56 - Yes, stop laughing at the back please. I realised in a flash of inspiration last night why it's oranges...it must be because electricity / batteries can be said to have "run out of juice" where juice is a slang term for energy. I still think Baked Beans would have worked too; you can be "full of beans", can't you?]

AGFAPhoto Heavy Duty; 009

This is another battery from what I think of as a camera / camera film manufacturer; AGFA. 

AGFA Heavy Duty Premium 1

 AGFA, otherwise known as "Agfa" or Agfa-Gevaert (do wish these companies would stick to block capitals, lowercase, whatever and stop the mix and match lettering. It drives the OCD in me into overdrive) is actually three separate companies; "Agfa Graphics" offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the printing and graphics industries, whilst "Agfa HealthCare" supplies hospitals and other care organisations with imaging products and systems, as well as information systems. "Agfa Specialty Products" supplies products to various industrial markets and these are all part of the whole that part of the "Agfa Materials" organization. In addition to the Agfa Specialty Products activities, Agfa Materials also supplies film and related products to Agfa Graphics and Agfa HealthCare themselves.

I remember that a number of years ago AGFA were quite a reputable company, and I began to wonder just what happened to them, as I can't recall seeing their logo on anything nor anywhere come to think of it.

Turns out that the consumer imaging division division which I was thinking of and which were once makers of prominent consumer products was sold to a company founded via management buyout in 2004. "AgfaPhoto GmbH", as the new company was called, filed for bankruptcy after just one year.

AGFA Heavy Duty Premium 2

What happened was that the brands are now licensed to other companies by "AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH", a holding firm and because of that, and following this sale, Agfa-Gevaert's commerce today is 100% business-to-business.

Phew, I don't think I could have crammed another business name of theirs into the space above. ;-)

Not sure how old this one is, but there's no "use by" date, suggesting it's pretty old. That would tally with the leakage you can see on it. Not exactly a great advert for them, is it?

ALDI Activ Energy; 008

Not one I'd ever heard of, but a quick search reveals this is a brand that is commonly sold at the "German originally, now in the UK" supermarket chain; ALDI;

ALDI Activ Energy 1

Reading a good history page from the Telegraph newspaper here, I found out that the name Aldi is a combination of Albrecht and discount. They also focuses on own-brand products, which account for around 90% of their sales in the UK.

Aldi arrived in the UK in 1990, having originally started back in 1946 in Essen, Germany. Quoting verbatim from the article, "From the small provincial store, they built one of Germany’s biggest retailers, which became renowned for its low prices. However, in 1960, the business and its 300 shops were split by the brothers after they fell out over whether to sell cigarettes. This led to Aldi being separated into Aldi Nord, which operates shops in the north of Germany, and Aldi Sud, which is based in the south and now operates the Aldi stores in the UK. Karl Albrecht took control of Aldi Sud. He is now in his 90s and ranked by Forbes as the richest man in Germany."

I wonder what he spends his money on at his age? Cocaine and prostitutes, or Anusol Hemorrhoid Cream? Perhaps he lives a permanent life in Walt Disney World, Florida... I know I would if I could. ;-)

Useless fact; did you know that the name ALDI is a combination of  the German words "albrecht" and the English word "discount", meaning "bright discount", unless I've totally got that wrong Rabatt is the german word for discount, which would have made them "ALRA", which perhaps is a little too close to the pop-group "ABBA". I'd guess Benny, Bjorn, er... Frankie and the other one whose name I forget in the group have very powerful lawyers and would have sued. ;-)

ALDI Activ Energy 2

I did also find a Which? review of these batteries, but you need to sign up and subscribe real money to them, to enable you to read it in full. I'll be buggered if I'm going to do that, but if you have a subscription, feel free to share the more salient parts in the comments below. 

It's a simple design, this one, but somehow the motion that the lines give to the text make it appear space-like and futuristic... well, to me, but that might be a side-effect of the painkillers I'm taking right now.

The text suggests it was partly proof-read too, it doesn't fall into the "Keep out of Children" mis-translation trap, but does however suggest that you dispose of a fire. Question to self: Can you incinerate a fire to dispose of it, or is it safe to just put it alight in the bin? ;-)

£1.99 for eight at the time of going to press gives a cost of... hang on a moment... I have a calculator here.... oh, yes; 24.8p or so each.

A Titan Amongst Batteries; Titan; 007

Titan, as far as I can tell, is an advanced lithium ion battery design and production company based in the United States of America. I don't know if that means they actually manufacture the batteries they sell themselves there, or weather they import Chinese-made stock.

I do have my doubts that this Titan is the same as the Titan behind this AA battery I have as they only started out in 2015, with this battery looking like it's been through a much longer life than just 3 or so years;

Titan 1

Also, from the blurb on the site, they appear to focus on rechargeable lithium batteries, mainly for the unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) market, which make me suspect this isn't the same people... 

Nothing else has turned up in my searches, but some things do "match" in my mind. The style of font they are using on the site and their stock is similar to the one I have, almost too similar to be a coincidence. I suppose there could be a chance that this battery is only a few years old and they originally produced leaky alkaline cells before specialising in rechargeables.

Titan 2

Anyone out there on the Entirenet know whose batteries these are? 

This battery is worthy of a mention, if a little indirectly; looking over the Titan web site, I came across their company "slogan"... I guess you'd call it that, and it's a champion of a doozy of a great one;

"Inside beats the heart of a Titan"

It does reek somewhat of a badly translated "Chinglish" line, which makes me think I still have a chance with this site and the batteries being one and the same.

Hyundai Heavy Industries; Super Alkaline OEM?; 006

 Another brand-name which I don't immediately think of when it comes to manufacturing or buying domestic AA batteries is that of the Korean car giant "Hyundai", but a quick check online shows me that they aren't just a car manufacturer, but a huge conglomerate that has it's fingers in many different pies... from cars to department stores to the strangely frightening-sounding "heavy industries".

Hyundai Super Alkaline 1

So it's no surprise that they also manufacture and sell batteries, I suppose and,  although I don't necessarily think of Hyundai as a "cheap" brand, they turn up not in mainstream retail shops, but in the bargain "Pound store" places instead.

No main site or page I could find for the batteries in English, but I did strike this Netherlands-based site here; http://hyundaibattery-nl.com/ which is worth a (translated) read.

Hyundai Super Alkaline 2

Not much else to say about this. It's a pretty nondescript design; white body, with a blue "top". Makes me wonder if this is an OEM or an "Original Equipment Manufacturer" battery... one that was supplied with some other companies device where they don't make batteries themselves. Kind of like the electric nose hair trimmer I got for Christmas this year. What a truly thoughtful gift... NOT.

No mercury or cadmium in this one either, which is good.

Oh, and I have yet to check my bottom for a date... I don't remember there being one on there last time I looked... ;-)

"Powercell"... A Battery By Any Other Name; Variant 1; Super Extra Fresh Green And Blue; 005

 "Powercell" may be a name or brand that strikes fear into some of the hardiest world-weary of consumers when it comes to batteries.

I've always felt that it was a direct rip off of the "Duracell" name, but you could argue that the word "cell" isn't exactly owned by Duracell and it does imply battery cell, so perhaps I'm being cantankerous. Or perhaps it's the Powercell or brands using the words "Dura" and "Cell" in their name AND using a similar "Copper-Coloured Top" marketing gimmick to sell their products as Duracell-like I'm thinking of...

Powercell Variant 1 1

This image here is a prime example of that, and if I were Duracell, I'd be spitting my tea out as soon as I saw this and getting my lawyers to grab these con-artists by the throat.

Anyway, these are approaching what I'd call the "bottom" of the cheap battery market, and in my own experience they certainly don't last long in anything important I've tried them with. That said, as a cheap battery for children's toys and the occasional-use item, they appear no better or worse than any other cheap battery.

The name doesn't appear to be trade-marked (yet?) and so there are many different companies churning out batteries all called "Powercell"

I particularly like the way the marketing people behind these batteries often uses key phrases or slogans in an effort to make them appear more attractive, such as "Super", "Extra", "Heavy Duty", "Mega Value", "High Energy", "Ultra", and my favourite pairing of "Maximum Power, Maximum Endurance".

If I owned a genuine "Powercell" business like this one I'd be seriously hacked off at Chinese manufacturers tarnishing my reputation with similarly-named products of lesser value.

This is a pretty old battery, with a use-by date of 2006, making it 12 years old at time of writing, and you can see it's suffered from some deformation;

Powercell Variant 1 2

Being curious, I looked to see what causes that "bulging" effect in batteries and learnt it's a build-up of hydrogen gas that does this, eventually deforming the battery so much it starts to "leak". Manufacturers add mercury in order to prevent the formation of this internal gas. That lead me onto another question; "How much mercury is actually allowed in these AA batteries, then?", as this battery is actually labelled as containing less that 0.025% of mercury (by weight, we assume).

Well, for me here in the UK and with us still "half in, half out" of the EU, according to Directive 2006/66/EC (page 9, Article 4);

1. Without prejudice to Directive 2000/53/EC, Member States shall

prohibit the placing on the market of:

(a) all batteries or accumulators, whether or not incorporated into

appliances, that contain more than 0,0005 % of mercury by

weight; and

(b) portable batteries or accumulators, including those incorporated into

appliances, that contain more than 0,002 % of cadmium by weight.

Powercell Variant 1 3

So technically  this Powercell battery, even with it's peculiar "Fresh" text and hearts logo (implying it's "green" or healthy? God knows...), actually exceeds that limit.

Better go and wash my hands now, whilst I think of it.

Duracell Type 1; Duralock OEM; 004

I think if the question "Name a brand of battery" came up in the quiz "Family Fortunes", "Duracell" would be near the top of the most popular ones, if not THE most popular answer.

Duracell Duralock OEM 1

This example (the first of many different Duracell variants to come I'm sure) is their OEM or "Original Equipment Manufacturer" version, with what they call "Duralock"; essentially, this is technology to prevent the battery "running down" over time, even when not in use and not I should add high performance PVC fencing for use in equestrian applications, as my original research first led me to. ;-)

Duracell offer a 10-year guarantee on the lifespan of these batteries, and are the only manufacturer that I can think of that offers such a long warranty. You can see why anyone selling a product which needs batteries would go for these for inclusion with their item (the "OEM" bit, meaning they aren't sold retail, but will have come with another item as the "included" batteries for it)... that is, if they valued their customers and their customer service.

To quote from their site;

"Ordinary zinc-carbon batteries contain fewer active ingredients inside and lose energy over time as chemical reactions go on constantly. Unlike zinc-carbon batteries, Duracell is filled with 2 times more active ingredients, which are locked inside a unique durable construction. It prevents battery leakage and helps the battery last significantly longer. Duralock is an exclusive power preservation system, which saves energy so effectively that your battery is guaranteed to stay powered for up to 10 years in ambient storage."

I wonder what those "active ingredients" are? Crystal fragments, ground Narwhal tusk powder, or perhaps even marshmallow pieces? Probably heavy elements or metals I guess... more research needed methinks.

I don't think there's anyone who hasn't heard of Duracell and their batteries, and I have fond memories myself of their advertising... be it the "one with the copper-coloured top" slogan (now, sadly "ripped off" by many battery manufacturers), to the "drumming bunny" adverts from all the way back in 1983, and onward to the advent of their "Powercheck" on-board battery tester, built right into the batteries themselves.

I've always felt that if you want a decent battery, and let's say for a good example here that one application I wouldn't be willing to use a pound shop battery for is that of a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, then I personally feel you can't do better than buy Duracell. They are a trusted brand such as Virgin ("were",  perhaps would be a better word to suffix that after their train fiasco), and well-respected by the consumer.

Duracell Duralock OEM 2

There's now a huge range to choose from, even for the humble AA-size, with their latest offering being tagged as the "Ultra Power" battery, but do have a look at their history here, as some of it is fascinating. I never knew they had the first battery on the moon in the 1960's or that the Duracell "bunny" as it's become known has it's own biography.

At £4 for four (type "Power Plus") at present, that's a not insubstantial £1 per battery, or to put it another way 66 times more per battery than that of Kodak's "Super Heavy Duty" offering... but in the long run, a great many people like me believe them to be the battery to go to for longevity.

Made in China too, which is somewhat predicable these days.