Batteries On The Web

General information

Batteries On The Web

Batteries on the web is the battery department of Pellon Tyre and Auto Centre. Based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, but not far from Bradford, Leeds and Huddersfield, we are only a short drive from Lancashire.

For details of how to reach us, see the find us page.

To buy online, please visit our online shop.

We offer quality batteries at discount prices, delivered overnight to UK destinations.

If you need help and advice, please phone us for on 01422410899

History of Batteries On the Web

First contact with batteries in garage job, 40 years ago

Eric Roberts, the founder of batteriesontheweb.co.uk, has been in the car battery trade for 40 years.

He started his interest whilst working for a small garage in Batley, West Yorkshire. This was only his second job, but as an apprentice Eric had to do all the mundane jobs such as greasing and checking all the levels, including the car batteries. In those days most of the batteries were made of hard rubber and all the batteries had to be checked and topped up by hand, there were no cheap batteries in those days.

Learning about Batteries at College

Because Eric was an apprentice he had to attend the local Batley Technology College. As part of the course he soon started learning about car batteries. This became one of his favourite subjects, which made the chore of checking and filling up the batteries on a service a little more interesting.

This was also a time when batteries were been made out of different materials and were coming out in different colours. Plastics and Bakelite were now being used in battery manufacture.

Batteries and also Tyres

After an altercation with his boss, Eric decided to move on and very quickly found employment with his local Tyre and Autocentre. The company then called Briggs was soon to be bought out by National Tyres, a subsidiary of Dunlop Tyres. He soon realised that this was the job for him.

He was promoted from fitter to office manager in a very short time. Tyres and batteries were the thing he loved, (apart from playing soccer, and Huddersfield Town).

Eric was eager to learn and very shortly went to a battery course in York, the course was presented by Crompton-Parkinson car batteries. This course heightened Eric's enthusiasm towards batteries and he became a top salesman selling Crompton batteries to local motorists.

Goodyear Tyres and Tyreservices Ltd

It was soon time for a change of companies along with a better job this time working for Goodyear Tyres, as manager at their Huddersfield depot of Tyreservices ltd. Run down wasn't the word for this depot!

Tyreservices were thinking of closing down this branch but decided to give it one more chance under the managership of Eric Roberts. Things began to take off, following a swift change of staff and Eric selecting his own personnel.

His enthusiasm once again spilled over to all his staff and Huddersfield depot climbed into one of the top ten depots in Britain. One of the main things that helped was Eric's love of car batteries and his enthusiasm for the product led him to visit the Exide battery factory and this introduced him to the realms of marketing approach towards batteries.

Batteries were no longer just a black thing that we fitted to cars when needed, but were to become highly commercialised with battery companies claiming that there products were 'made of better materials and lasted longer', this started off the two and three year warranty battery.

Fulmen Batteries and the Cheap Battery

After four years of excellent success Eric decided that the only way forward was to start up in business. This was a massive step and soon talked an old tyre friend of his to set up a new venture. Peter and Eric were great friends. After several months of looking for premises, they would open up in Birstall near Leeds.

Eric contacted all the old business suppliers and the business took off. He quickly contacted his last battery supplier, a French battery company called Fulmen. This was a top class battery and also competitively priced. It had to be, because the era of the cheap battery had arrived.

Kut-Cost Tyre and Auto Centre, Exide Batteries

The new adventure was called Kut-Kost Tyre and Auto Centre. The partners were also using Exide batteries again, and were soon expanding on all fronts of their business, including Eric's favourite: car batteries. Kut-Kost were expanding to two and then three depots, at Morley and Dewsbury.

Tungstone and Varta Batteries too

Batteries were one of their main products and were also dealing with Tungstone and then Varta. After nine years of trading the partners were made an offer for the business from Shell oil company who wanted to build an independent tyre and battery business to compete with Quik-Fit. This offer was too good to turn down and Kut-Kost was sold.

Pellon tyres and Batteries, Halifax

After taking some time out Eric started to look for a new venture. Things were slow but a small garage came up for sale in Halifax. It took a few months for Eric to make up his mind, but after a great deal of deliverance, decided to go for it and started Pellon Tyres and batteries on his own without a partner.

The garage only sold tyres and batteries but it did not take long for Eric to expand the services and his business became an MOT testing station. Thing went from strength to strength, and Eric expanded the premises by buying next door and building new extensions.

He also continued to expanded his product range and started to sell leisure batteries and marine batteries. The battery side of the business was doing fine but around 2004, sales were been lost to the internet.

Selling car batteries on the web

Not wanting to fall behind, Eric and his wife opened an eBay shop and began selling batteries on line. They had a web site (www.pellonautocentre.com) from the year 2000 but this was only informative and they did not sell on line. The site was later updated to sell tyres online, mainly set up to attract customers in the West Yorkshire area who could travel to Halifax within half an hour and get a good deal.

With this improvement Eric decided to sell batteries online, www.batteriesontheweb.co.uk was born. The web site was built and designed by a part-timer and it was decided to rebuild it, at the same time making the site more commercial.

Pennine King Power Batteries

Meanwhile things are going great from the eBay shop and Eric indeed imports his own product. This is called Pennine King Power, an excellent battery, supplied maintenance-free. Eric is also the Lucas Battery dealer in West Yorkshire and offers a next day free delivery in that area.

Batteries on the web

Batteries on the web is a trading name of Pellon Tyres And Auto Centre Limited, a company registered in England No. 04208956. Our VAT number is 516 4968 21