Tudor is a lead-acid battery brand founded by

Henri Tudor Henri Owen Tudor (30 September 1859 – 31 May 1928) was a Luxembourg engineer, inventor, and industrialist. He developed the first commercially usable lead-acid battery. Life Henri Tudor was the son of John Thomas Tudor from Llanarth (Unite ...

in 1890 and is now owned by

Exide Technologies Exide was originally a brand name for batteries produced by The Electric Storage Battery Company and later became Exide Corporation doing business as Exide Technologies, an American multinational lead-acid batteries manufacturing company. It ...

History

The start

from

Rosport Rosport () is the capital of the commune of Rosport-Mompach in eastern Luxembourg. It is part of the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher. Until 31 December 2017, it was a commune. On 1 January 2018, the commune was ...

created in 1890 what will become later the Tudor batteries brand: the ''Société anonyme Franco-Belge pour la fabrication de l’accumulateur Tudor'' (Franco-Belgian anonymous society for the manufacture of the Tudor Accumulator). At that time, more than 1200 Tudor batteries were in service in Belgium and abroad including Germany, France, Austria, Spain, Egypt, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Argentina. The emblem was the name of the brand with the head of a

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

, which originated in the family of Henri Tudor's uncle, Robert Leadbitter from

Newcastle-on-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...

in Northumberland. Tudor had licensed his brand in many countries like Germany (''Accumulatoren-Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft'' (AFA)) and Spain (''la Sociedad Española Del Acumulador''). In 1901, Henri Tudor decided to change the name of the firm to ''Société anonyme des accumulateurs Tudor'' (Joint-stock company of the Tudor Accumulators) with operating sites in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

and Florival. Later in 1908, the Rosport site was closed. As Tudor Spain became more profitable, the shareholding shifted and AFA became the majority shareholder in 1903. Tudor imported equipment from Germany.

During World War I

When the

first world war World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out in 1914, AFA removed from Tudor Spain's capital. Three directors resigned and the situation was critical. However, in 1916, Tudor Spain became the supplier of two starting batteries models manufactured in Spain. In others European countries during WWI, plants were completely plundered, like in Belgium and in Luxembourg. These events will not hinder the company to have, between the two world wars nearly 25,000 employees at the Florival plant. In 1920, Tudor Spain supplied the first battery for a submarine (

Isaac Peral Isaac Peral y Caballero (1 June 1851, in Cartagena – 22 May 1895, in Berlin), was a Spanish engineer, naval officer and designer of the Peral Submarine. He joined the Spanish navy in 1866, and developed the first electric-powered submarine whi ...

), with funding from The Akkumulator Fabrik AG. Tudor Advertisement 1925

The succession

In 1928, after Henri Tudor’s death, his son John took the succession as Managing director of “Accumulateurs Tudor” During the following years, the traction battery market will strongly rise. However, the first expansion of their plants were based on stationary batteries. For these facilities, the company proposed service contracts under which it bound up with keeping the battery in good working order for a period of ten years against a fixed remuneration. From 1931, «Accumulateurs Tudor» introduced widely the traction battery which is especially used for the industry handling equipment. In 1939, Tudor batteries France made the acquisition of the Belgian Society of Fulmen accumulator S.A. with its 5900 m2 site located in Leeuw-St.Pierre.

After World War II

* From 1945, la Société anonyme Accumulateurs Tudor became one of the main starter batteries suppliers for the automotive industry. * In 1948 the capital of the company was increased to 30 million Francs * During the fifties, the traction battery market expanded considerably following the needs for reconstruction and development of handling equipment. * In 1957, Auguste Charles Laval became CEO of Tudor France and started a corporate restructuring with the centralization of the manufacturing on the Florival site. * In 1965, Tudor enhances its quality image by becoming the exclusive large automotive OEM brands including Ford, Peugeot and Renault. * About 1967, the Florival plant had around 600 workers. It produced 4.000 accumulators a day. A car on two in Belgium runs with a Tudor accumulator.

Two successive recessions

The 1974 recession was keenly felt. The first half of 1981 was characterized by a new crisis resulting in technical unemployment and a deficit. In 1982, the plant underwent thirteen days strike while production was one million pieces per year. The company suffered from the global overcapacity in the starter battery, which represented 65% of revenues. The goal was to reduce this proportion to 50%. Sales were divided between Germany, Benelux and France, with a predominance of the French market. The competition was Japanese, but also Europe with the establishment of a major General Motors production plant in Sarreguemines. The lifetime of the batteries significantly lengthened, and replacements became less frequent.

Additional investment

A continuous casting installation of grids, representing an investment of one million dollars, was commissioned in 1982. At the trays, antique ebony gave way to lighter and more resistant polymers. The stationary battery was the subject of high demand in the area of preventing interruptions (telephone exchanges, operating rooms, computer rooms). Batteries handling equipment however accounted for 70% of turnover of industrial battery.

Integration in a global economy

Eventually, The Florival site (in the city of Grez-Doiceau) suffered from its initial geographical limits. In 1990, the “Société Anonyme Tudor accumulators" was absorbed by the C.E.A.C.(European Accumulators Company) based in Gennevilliers (France) which was a French-Italian company. C.E.A.C., well-known for its Fulmen brand, thus became also owner of the Tudor brand in some country. The production activities of the Florival site were reduced gradually. In October 1994,

took over the ''“Sociedad Española del Acumulador Tudor”''. The Spanish company was, with Tudor India and Tudor Swedish, one of the last social reasons to keep using Tudor brand. In 1995

also took C.E.A.C. The Florival site became a distribution center.

References

External links

*http://tudorbatt.info/ *

Battery (electricity) Belgian companies established in 1890 Manufacturing companies of Belarus Manufacturing companies established in 1890