SWF battery empire charged by lottery winnings

Jason Fry at his Batteries Plus store in Fort Myers. Mr. Fry opened a Naples store two weeks ago. Jason Fry aims to be the Battery King of Southwest Florida with a series of Batteries Plus franchise purchases, a business plan boosted by the $13.6 million lump-sum payment Mr. Fry opted for when he won the Florida Lottery less than two years ago.

He bought his first Batteries Plus last March in Fort Myers and opened his second two weeks ago in Naples. He’s purchased the franchise rights for stores in Bonita Springs and Cape Coral, and plans on at least four more in the next decade, spanning a territory north to Charlotte County and east to Broward County.

Before he hit the jackpot in December 2007, Mr. Fry was a busy man. “I had three jobs, two houses and two mortgages,” he says, adding his lucky numbers hit in the knick of time. “I was really just about to go bankrupt.”

The inventory at Batteries Plus includes batteries for everything from cordless vacuum cleaners and digital cameras to car-door openers and golf carts, motor homes and boats. In addition to working fulltime as a bartender at Stonewood Grill and Tavern in Fort Myers, he was drilling wells for a friend in Lehigh Acres and driving a cement truck for Rinker Materials.

Although he’d never been a regular lottery player, when a friend said he was running next door to pick up a few tickets, he figured that since it was a big win, he might as well buy a few tickets. He split the $47 million prize with a Bonita Springs man who was also fortunate enough to assemble the winning numbers.

Despite the windfall, Mr. Fry, 36, says kicking back and relaxing was never an option.

A graduate of the University of South Florida with a degree in criminology, he’d spent several years working for the state Department of Corrections in Naples. Troy Miller had an office next to Mr. Fry when they were working as parole and probation officers.

“He’s a hard-working dude,” Mr. Miller says. “When he was a parole officer, he was working that full-time job at the Stonewood Grill at the same time. He’s one of those guys who would just go nuts if he tried to hang out.”

‘A battery nation’

The idea of growing a business while offering employment in the community he’d grown up in appealed to Mr. Fry, who moved to Fort Myers from Chicago as a teenager. The 6-foot-5 father of two daughters once played football at Cypress Lake High School.

He first heard about Batteries Plus from one of his college roommates who bought a franchise in Orlando. After a bit of research, he was sold on the concept.

The Batteries Plus on Cleveland Avenue in Fort Myers had been in business for 14 years when he bought its building and operation in March for about $1 million, according to www.lotterypost.com. The new Naples store, in leased space in Moorings Plaza across from Coastland Center, is a start-up.

Mr. Fry is not the only one charged on batteries.

We’ve become a battery nation. Driven by a demand for portable battery-powered electrical devices, the U.S. battery industry is estimated to be $24 billion annually. The average American household has at least 21 items that require batteries.

Consumers might be putting off new purchases, but fresh batteries keep what’s already owned running.

More and more, devices that used to be plugged into a wall for operation are only plugged into the wall for charging. Batteries continue to improve, lasting longer for devices that require longer run time.

“Batteries are not a want item; they’re a need item,” Mr. Fry explains. “This is kind of a recession-proof business because everything runs on batteries these days. Even in hard times, people still need their batteries for everything.” A thriving franchise

Batteries Plus, the first all-battery retail franchise in the United States, reports that it serves more than 1.5 million consumers nationwide annually and sells more than 1 million batteries a week, from store sales and online at www.batteriesplus. com.

The Wisconsin-based company sells more than 19,000 types of batteries for all sorts of applications. A private company not required to reveal audited financials, it reported sales up 23 percent in 2008 and first quarter sales up more than 15 percent over the previous year.

Growing primarily through franchising, Batteries Plus opened 34 stores in 2008 and hopes to double store count over the next three to four years. Ninety percent of the 20-year-old company’s 355-plus stores are franchise locations.

Besides selling, fixing and recycling batteries, the stores operate tech centers for trouble shooting battery problems and building battery packs. The company can repair watch batteries, rebuild battery packs for cordless drills and save consumers money on the batteries that operate dog fences. Impulse items such as batteryoperated fly swatters and a large supply of flashlights are also in stock. Each location employs three to five salespeople.

Batteries of all kinds

While the Fort Myers location has an established name and a driveway that’s regularly filled with cars, the Batteries Plus brand is new to Naples.

“A lot of people simply do not know that we exist and what we are all about,” said Shawn Kennedy, regional manager for Mr. Fry’s stores. “There’s a high level of misconception when someone calls over the phone or just drives by. The instant conclusion people draw is that we specialize in car batteries and nothing else. The truth of the matter is that at Batteries Plus we carry a wide variety.

“If it’s powered by a battery, we probably have it.”

Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Fry met on the job at Stonewood Grill and Tavern. He handles the day-to-day operations of the fledgling battery empire and refers to himself and Mr. Fry as the “Battery Gurus” of Southwest Florida.

A Johnson & Wales graduate, Mr. Kennedy’s background is food service. In many ways, he says, the service-oriented nature of fine dining is a perfect training ground for what appears to be a new era in battery sales.

“A high level of customer service separates us from every competitor out there,” he says. “Nobody else selling batteries is doing what we do, no matter if it’s an automotive shop specializing in car batteries or your local Wal-Mart that just sells alkalines.” 