May 6, 2021: Leoch Battery, the Chinese lead-acid and lithium battery maker, announced on May 4 it was expanding into Spain and Portugal with the purchase of Madrid-based distribution business Meibat.
The purchase means Leoch will create a new business — Leoch Iberia — that will set up, it says, a dedicated warehouse facility in the Spanish capital ‘to ensure fast delivery of its industrial battery products to customers across Spain and Portugal’.
Meibat already concentrates on the telecommunications, UPS, data centre, renewables and energy storage sectors as well as motive market segments, so its business, with major accounts in the region, complements Leoch.
Leoch Iberia will then use the Spanish operations as a base from which to extend into Latin America, it says, ‘using a network of local representatives in different Latin American countries, supported by Leoch Iberia and Leoch EMEA headquarters in Athens, Greece’.
“Leoch previously had a representative in Spain but this major acquisition will enable us to establish a permanent footprint with all original equipment customers in Iberia, as it was the only major European country on our target list where we didn’t have our own entity, adding to successful facilities in France, Germany, Italy and the UK,” said Stathis Babalis, general manager of EMEA at Leoch.
“From this new base in Madrid, we will focus on driving the growth of our leading industrial batteries with all major key accounts in the network power market as well as the motive power one in Spain and Portugal.”