What is the AJC Battery Story?

In 2010, AJC founder Aric Shelko noticed he was using a lot of batteries around the house and for his business and most replacement batteries were very expensive, sometimes just as expensive as the item it was supposed to power. This didn’t make sense to him. So, he started looking a little deeper. This deeper look took him to explore different battery types and styles and had him really going down the rabbit hole of experimentation with quality and performance. 

One of his first discoveries was that some of those expensive batteries were as much as the equipment they are supposed to power and he saw very little difference in performance vs the cheaper variations. Being able to save money without losing quality was important. 

An issue with the cheaper replacement batteries for Aric was consistency in quality. While most of them performed well, there were some that did not and hinted at a low quality control process. The other issue he found was delivery times. Even though he was saving money and didn’t mind waiting a little longer, some wait times were extreme. 3 and 4 weeks was just too long to have to wait. 

After spending some time researching, he saw an opportunity and decided to look a little closer at the battery manufacturing process. 

Something he found interesting was that these batteries were predominately made in the same factories, and it seemed that the labels were a large factor dictating the ultimate pricing. Another factor influencing the pricing was the QA process. Having staff available to test every battery certainly adds to the cost and some would cut corners in this area. It certainly seemed to be a very important part of the process. The results of his research gave Aric enough data to decide to start his own replacement battery brand that combined affordability, quality and performance.

In 2012 Aric created the AJC battery brand. Its mission was quite simply to “offer quality batteries at affordable prices”. He was able to manufacture batteries that provided the quality he needed at the right price. He was able to ensure that no corners were cut during the QA process. He was able to get the shipping process down to be able to offer same day shipping. He put systems in place to be able to support customer services, created an ecommerce website to sell direct to consumers all with the goal of keeping pricing as low as possible for consumers. It meant being smart with partnerships. The main key though, was relying on the quality of the product. Having satisfied customers meant return order and strong word of mouth which all allowed Aric to keep pricing down. 

AJC Battery has grown every year since those early days and has increased their range of batteries to include Powersports and Marine batteries and can now accommodate more than tens of thousands of products for all of the leading brands. While there have been plenty of challenges along the way, the ultimate goal continues to provide quality batteries at affordable prices. Visit www.ajcbattery.com and batteryclerk.ca