VARTA Microbattery GmbH realigns its company structure to further expand and to develop new business segments. Therefore the pilot plant for the production of PoLiFlex is shut down and considerable investments will be made in R&D for the rechargeable Lithium technology in Ellwangen.

The company structure is based on three areas: "Micro batteries" with VARTA as innovation leader, "Solution Providing" with the development of products with very specific profiles and "New Generation Lithium" (NGL) with rechargeable Lithium products for strong growing segments as automotive, regenerative energy or medical engineering.

Pilot plant too small for sustainable growth
Background for the realignment: About 85% of the world market of Lithium cells (including PoLiFlex products) are served by mass production. The prices of these cells have halved during the last years, in some segements the price reduction was even more - mainly due to the market entry of Asian and especially Chinese manufacturers.
VARTA Microbattery has a worldwide market share of less than 0,1% in the segment of rechargeable Lithium batteries. Thus there is a lack of the needed size to generate sustainable growth. Furthermore the developments on the worldwide financial markets present an additional burden for VARTA Microbattery.

About 70 employees are affected by this realignment and VARTA Microbattery together with the works council will work on a number of options to offer new perspectives.

Setting the course for the future
Herbert Schein, now CEO and speaker of the VARTA Microbattery management comments: "The PoLiFlex production generated a loss of several million Euros each year. This is a danger not only for this segment but for the whole company. With our realignment we set the precondition for a successful development in the future".

CFO Hermann Meysel adds: "VARTA Microbattery currently achieves an EBT of less than 3%. This high yearly loss of the PoLiFlex production has a negative effect on other positively developping businss units. Especially regarding the economic future of Ellwangen these ongoing losses would limit the investments. With the new srategy and company structure we have far more  options".

VARTA Microbattery plans to invest more than 5 million Euro into new  production facilities in Ellwangen and develop new products as e.g. button cells with TFT-foil technology sealing and rechargeable button cells. The activities for Polymer smartcards are also continued. A very high focus will be put on R&D for innovative rechargeable Lithium technology in Ellwangen.