NEWS photo Brad Ledwidgs BLUESTAR Battery executives Lynn Marcoux (left) and Neil Huff hope to guide their once U.S. Army- dependent company to a successful future in a num- ber of different markets. Diversity powers battery company By fan Noble News Reporter BLUESTAR Battery Systems Corp. is in the process of reinventing itself. In 1992, the North Vancouver company basically had one product and one cus- tomer. The product was non- rechargeable lithiumy batteries and the customer was the U.S, Army, said company president Neil Huff. - At the time, BlueStar had as many as 260 employees and $14 million in sales. That was during the Gulf war, when the U.S. Army ordered millions of batteries, bur didn’t use many of the long-living lithium cells BlucStar provided. With the cyclic orders from the U.S. Army drying up as cuts to the military took hold, BlueStar has pushed to expand its customer base and now has dozens of smaller customers operating in’ seven or eight countries, including Australia, the United — Kingdom, Sweden, India and Israel. The company's product line now stretches from small inch-high batteries for memo- ry backup in military radios to batteries that include 15 dou- ble D cells used in submarine training targets. The next major step in BlueStar’s diversification is to «move into rechargeable lithi- “um batteries, said the compa- ny’s vice president of product development, Lynn Marcoux. “It’s probably the hottest thing in battery technology in the world,” said Huff, who's been in charge of the compa- ny’s diversification. While the Japanese push to develop smaller rechargeable batteries for portable electron- ics, BlueStar is involved in a $500,000 a year program funded by the American and Canadian militaries to develop aircraft-type batteries in rechargeable lithium. BlueStar will also look at cells for items such as satel- lites, communications applica- tions, computers and electric vehicles, said Marcoux. The company does not expect to have a commercial product until 1998. Also, BlueStar recently received a $114,595 grant from the province’s Technology B.C. program to develop a superior pertor- mance non-rechargeable lithi- um battery. The research is less about making the non-rechargeable battery than secing if it can be made profitably and if there's a market for it, said Marcoux. Since branching out into the commercial — market, BlueStar’s most successful sales venture has been to the search and) rescue - market. Lithium’s long shelf fife and ability to withstand cold make the batteries ideal for such work. However, lithium is more expensive than alkaline cells, Bluestar was founded in 1977 and in its present loca- tion on West L5th since the carly 1980s, Because the company has recently: gone public, it has not released any annual reports. However, the 60- employee firm is not presently profitable. ls) Macintosh Computer? ¢ Complete Macintosh Sales and Consulting Services ® Private tutoring, in-home, office and group instruction * Help with hundreds of Macintosh applications! ® System set-up, troubleshooting and networking © Scanner, CD-ROM, HD and modem experts © Printer software problems are no problem! * Custom database systems and custom programming * New Macintosh computer sales and leasing * Memory and logic board upgrades Offering the best hourly rates in Vancouver! * Nearly every client we have assisted has become a satisfied repeat client appl * Now over 350 steady clients strong! 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