About BATORAY

BATORAY was founded in 1987 by David, Marty, Steve and Joe Egbers as a wholesale distribution branch of Ludlow Hardware, a retail hardware store they owned. David was a district sales manager for Rayovac for 30 years. It was his vision that brought BATORAY to life. He traveled the country as one of Rayovac’s top sales executives and recognized the need for a master distributor. He wanted to attract the customers who could not meet the factory minimum purchase requirements or simply preferred better service than a large manufacturer could provide. He approached his sons, Steve and Joe, about starting the business since they grew up around the battery and flashlight business and had experience in construction and the retail hardware business. The boys decided to follow their father’s advice and they named the new distribution company BATORAY.

Through the early years, Steve managed the retail hardware store while David and Joe focused on building the wholesale distribution side of the company. BATORAY’s initial mission was to provide batteries and lighting products to wholesale customers in Greater Cincinnati. However, the wholesale division experienced tremendous growth, and by the company’s tenth anniversary, there were customers in more than 40 states. In 1997 they sold Ludlow Hardware and devoted 100 percent of their time and talent to wholesale distribution.

Steve and Joe began to see other wholesale needs as well. “As we made sales calls and listened to our customers, we realized we could use our knowledge of the industrial/retail hardware trade and added gloves, safety glasses and other industrial related work gear to our existing lines of batteries and lighting products.”

In October 2008, BATORAY launched their own line of battery assemblies. All the assemblies are built in-house with expert workmanship and are made of high-quality materials. Battery assemblies have become top sellers since many are stock items for immediate shipment. The other assemblies are built same day or next day. BATORAY currently builds more than 1,000 different battery assemblies.

Today BATORAY continues to provide top notch service to customers with Joe Egbers serving as President and his nephew, Jacob Finke, serving as Vice President & Operations Manager.