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The XtraPower Story

Frederik Gustavsson began in the battery business when his father decided to import a regeneration technology from Sweden to North America in the late 90s. After several years as operations manager for the largest battery supplier in the U.S., Frederik decided it was time to start his own business and moved back to Montreal Canada where he had lived for several years. Coincidentally, after two years, his father realized that the regen product was difficult to commercialize. The market was simply not ready for a do-it-yourself battery regeneration machine as it was too complex and required much more care and diligence than just plugging it onto the battery. It required a series of steps in assessing and evaluation and extensive battery knowledge to consistently produce a solid and reliable reconditioned battery. Frederik understood this from his experience in the battery business, and so he evolved the business model where his father left off, and began a battery reconditioning company.

In the beginning, it was a one-man shop. Frederik did everything on his own and outsourced where he could afford. He extended all his credit, rented out a 3000 square-foot warehouse, purchased all the battery equipment and regen machines from his former boss in the states and began to build reconditioned batteries. After months testing and trials, Frederick began to knock on doors. His first customer was a former client, forklift dealer in New England who decided to give the reconditioning idea a try. Steadily more accounts were won when word spread that the reconditioning process worked and the batteries produced performed exceptionally well. Over the next three years, the company grew slowly, as Fred did everything from cleaning the warehouse, testing and building the batteries to driving around making sales. Too many tasks, he knew he needed help.

So in early 2005, Fred enlisted his long time friend Marc-Andre Huras. For the first six months, Marc shadowed Frederik and tried to absorb everything he could about the industry and the market. Marc would spend his mornings making sales calls to end-users and his afternoons in the warehouse helping Frederik test and paint batteries.

About a year later, a turnaround occurred when the two friends realized that forklift dealers were the channel that had a stronghold on the end-user market. By simply redirecting their message to the forklift dealers and tailoring the reconditioned batteries and services to the dealers, they quickly expanded their market. This grow was also multiplied by two market drivers: the move away from gas powered lift trucks due to regulation, and the increasing price new batteries due to the increasing lead market.

Today, XtraPower sells batteries all over North America to large dealerships and end-users alike. What started out as a one man operation in a 3000 sq ft warehouse only 7 years ago has in the last three years grown into a 15-person staff and a 20,000 sq ft state of the art facility that can house upwards of a 500 batteries at a time. XtraPower buys used batteries from all over North America. It brings in 3-5 truckloads of spent batteries per week and triage them under their 18-stage process to determine whether to recondition or to recycle. Last year, XtraPower prevented roughly 2 million pounds of lead from being smelted, this year their objective is to salvage upwards of 6 million pounds. That makes a huge difference in the area of sustainable development.

Sales over these last to years have grown upwards of 100% and expansion extends to a new branch in Chile and partnerships in Mexico and Honduras. Old customers remain loyal through the reconditioning program and new customers believe in the concept as soon as they see the product and realize it saves them a lot of money. More importantly, they realize it saves the planet for our future generations.