Manufacturing, Raw Materials and Suppliers
We manufacture alkaline batteries, zinc carbon batteries and zinc air hearing aid batteries. Raw materials comprise a significant portion of our cost of goods sold. Zinc powder, electrolytic manganese dioxide powder and steel are the most significant raw materials we use to manufacture batteries. A number of worldwide sources of such materials exist. We believe we will continue to have access to adequate quantities of these materials. We use commodity swaps, calls and puts in an attempt to manage risks associated with fluctuations in market prices for purchases of zinc used in the manufacturing process.
Substantially all of our rechargeable batteries and chargers, lighting products and hair care, wellness and other personal care products, and our electric shaving and grooming products are manufactured by third party suppliers, primarily located in China and Japan. We maintain ownership of tooling and molds used by many of our suppliers.
We continually evaluate our facilities’ capacity and related utilization. As a result of such analyses, we have closed a number of manufacturing facilities during the past five years. In general, we believe our existing facilities are adequate for our present and currently foreseeable needs.