Duracell is powering battery innovation at new $56M Atlanta facility

Billions of copper-top batteries are already assembled in Georgia. But now the ingenuity that powers those cells will flow from an innovation center near Georgia Tech.

Duracell, one of the world’s largest battery manufacturers, has opened a $56 million global research and development headquarters at Science Square, Tech’s life sciences district along North Avenue.

The facility spans 83,000 square feet and will employ 120 workers. Inside, there are high-tech laboratories where researchers develop and test new battery solutions, with the goal of accelerating innovation from concept to commercialization.

“When you bring engineers and scientists together under one roof in the same place, ideas move very quickly and also breakthrough technologies evolve sooner,” Liben Hailu, Duracell’s chief technology officer, said during an event Tuesday with guests including Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.

Duracell’s new innovation hub also includes a posh gathering space decorated in hues of copper and black where the company can welcome executives and customers from around the world, with lush outdoor patios overlooking the Atlanta skyline.

Duracell’s investment in Atlanta adds to the Peach State’s growing list of companies that manufacture electric vehicle batteries and other energy storage devices.

Duracell relocated its R&D facility from Bethel, Connecticut, to Atlanta to capitalize on its long presence in Georgia, executives said. The company has operated a manufacturing facility in LaGrange since 1980, where it assembles more than 2 billion AA and AAA batteries each year, enough products to supply the U.S. market.

Duracell also maintains a distribution center in Fairburn, which it has operated since 2020. And executives touted proximity to another manufacturing facility in Cleveland, Tennessee, where Duracell makes its larger C and D batteries.

Duracell produces a range of copper-top batteries that power everyday devices, along with lithium coin batteries, hearing aid batteries and other products.

Constant innovation is necessary in a world where electronic devices continue to get smaller and demand more energy, Duracell CEO Roberto Mendez told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview.

“I consider the innovation pace of the battery world to actually be one of the most dynamic in the world of consumer goods,” Mendez said. “We’re not only in the business of technology and devices and all these cool things, but we’re making people’s lives better.”

Duracell’s Atlanta hub was at first shrouded in secrecy, referenced by economic development officials under the code name “Project Phoenix.”

In 2024, the Development Authority of Fulton County approved a nearly $870,000 property tax break for an undisclosed battery manufacturer to try to lure its innovation center to the area.

Last year, the project was revealed to the public.

“This is the kind of project I really get excited about because research and technology is where chemistry, engineering, manufacturing and imagination all meet,” Dickens said at the Tuesday event.

“Somebody has to figure out how to make the battery continue to last longer and longer and longer, and that’s what you guys do by testing new materials, improving the performance, solving problems at the molecular level and continuing to manufacture that solution at scale,” he said.