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August 15, 2008
EnerSys, one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial stored energy products, is in the process of increasing production, which means an increase of job opportunities with the global business.
Always seeking to grab a larger chunk of the market -- EnerSys boasts control of 30 percent of the world battery industry -- the company's Hays plant, One EnerSys Road, is expanding its workforce to meet a goal of a 25 percent increase in production.
Located on 127 acres of property, the 375,000 square-foot facility is not scheduled to make any physical additions in order to meet the heightened output, instead relying entirely on additional laborers and equipment.
"We believe in 'lean manufacturing,' " Hays Plant Manager Tom Kotch said, "where it is a basic Japanese concept to remove waste from a production process. And when you do that, you can consolidate a lot of things."
The company already has hired about 50 workers since a decision late last year to adopt the $1.2 million proliferation project.
Kotch, a newcomer to the battery industry who moved to Hays 10 months ago from an electronics manufacturing position in Tulsa, said he'd like to have another 25 workers within the next few months.
"We're trying to staff a 24/7 operation," he said. "We've got lots of work for folks."
The plant is on track to be halfway to its production goal by mid-September, Kotch said, adding he hopes to be at full operating power by October.
Once that status has been reached, the Hays facility should be pulling in about $1.25 million weekly in sales, or roughly $65 million annually.
As a company, EnerSys made more than $2 billion in sales last year, a 35-percent increase from the year before, with net earnings reaching almost $60 million.
Increasing that growth slightly, net sales for the company's first fiscal quarter of 2009, ending last June, were up nearly 38 percent to about $600 million.
Kotch said the Hays operation has seen a slower rate of growth, about 15 percent during the past few years, but said he is hoping for a 10-percent increase in sales for 2009.
Based in Reading, Pa., with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia and more than 20 manufacturing sites worldwide, EnerSys supplies batteries to customers in more than 100 countries.
The current manifestation of the company, its Web site states, formed in 2000 after the acquisition of the North and South American reserve and motive power battery operations of the Yuasa Corp. of Japan.
The company repeated this in 2002, taking over portions of the Energy Storage Group, a subsidiary of the British electro-mechanical business Invensys, and again in 2005 after assuming control of the motive power battery division of FIAMM, an Italy-based manufacturer of vehicular horns.
EnerSys is separated into three branches.
Its motive power division produces batteries for various equipment such as forklifts and coal-mining machinery.
The Hays facility is one site creating batteries for reserve power purposes. These power supplies have grown in popularity since the Federal Communications Commission issued its "Katrina Order" recommending telecommunications companies set up backup power systems.
The company's reserve power division devotes a lot of attention to the needs of data-management systems. Banks, credit card companies and even Wal-Mart rely on EnerSys's backup systems to preserve data in the case of a power outage.
"One of our customers loses almost $1 million a second if their systems go down," Kotch said. "Our batteries have to work."
EnerSys also maintains a division creating batteries for aircraft, submarines, defense vehicles and nuclear reactors.
"We build a battery that will last 23 years in the field and is continually on," Kotch said.
Customer and employee satisfaction is important to the company, Kotch said.
"If a customer wants something special, we can try to accommodate them besides our normal batteries," he said. "You have to be easy to work with."
EnerSys provides extensive safety training to employees to ensure there are no injuries related to machinery, battery acid and lead poisoning.
"We take as many possible precautions to protect our people from getting burned or from getting hurt," Kotch said.
The Hays plant also is dedicated to protecting the environment, authorizing 27 audits by the Environmental Protection Agency per year to ensure there are no dangerous emissions to the surrounding air, water or land.
"We want to be the best neighbor in town," Kotch said.
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