02.12.2025

Ecobat completes European exit

US based Battery recycling company Ecobat has completed the sale of its UK battery UK battery and lead recycling operations to funds advised by private equity firm Splitstone Capital. The deal includes Ecobat’s facility in Matlock, the largest battery recycling plant in Europe, as well as the company’s lead sheet mill in Welwyn Garden City.

Ecobat chief executive Tom Slabe said: “With this deal, we have executed on our strategic plan to reposition the business. Our exit from the UK together with previously announced divestitures in France, Italy, Germany, and Austria, allows us to sharpen our focus on North America and our lithium-ion battery recycling operations. We will continue to pursue additional opportunities to maximise value for shareholders beyond these transactions.”

Based in Dallas, Texas, and established in 1938, Ecobat is - the company claims - the world’s largest battery recycler providing solutions for battery recycling, resource recovery and energy storage. This move finalises the company's withdrawal from the European market.

Vertikal Comment

This is an understandable move for Ecobat in several ways. Its European operations are heavily invested in lead acid batteries, and it does look as though, over the medium to long term, Lithium will take an ever larger share of the market as costs come down. But with that comes the ongoing challenge of recycling them. If you listen to those claiming to know, recycling lithium batteries is tough and expensive, especially compared to lead based batteries, one of the easiest products on earth to recycle.

You could say that Ecobat is leaving the tail end of one easy entry technology, before it starts to look grim, in order to latch on to a leading position in a future technology, and the sale will provide additional capital to invest in that plan. Quitting Europe, perhaps less wise, but if in doing so it can get ahead of the lithium game, a return might not be so challenging. It will, though, need to keep the brand in front of people over here if possible,
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