What East Penn Manufacturing makes

East Penn Manufacturing is a battery maker built around lead-acid chemistry, producing 515 product designs under its flagship Deka brand across four divisions. The Transportation division supplies automotive, truck, marine, powersport, and tractor batteries. The Motive Power division makes industrial batteries for lift trucks and material handling. The Reserve Power division builds stationary energy storage for UPS systems, telecommunications, outside plant, renewable energy, and, increasingly, data centers. A fourth division makes premium wire, cable, and battery accessories, in bulk or individually packaged.

The operation is deeply vertically integrated. East Penn runs its own oxide facilities, an EPA-permitted lead smelter and refinery, injection molding through its Lancaster Mold subsidiary, four technical centers, a pilot plant, a fully equipped machine shop, and water purification plants, all on one campus. Its recycling loop is central to the business: the company processes more than 30,000 batteries daily and recycles close to 100% of each spent battery it receives, feeding reclaimed lead and plastic back into new product. Lithium capability sits alongside the lead-acid core through its Navitas Systems subsidiary, which serves defense and advanced energy-storage applications.

As a supplier, East Penn spans OEM programs and a large aftermarket and private-label channel. Deka is a widely stocked aftermarket battery brand, and the company surfaces sustainability work with Honda and John Deere on its own site. Most original-equipment programs in this category are undisclosed, which is normal for a Tier 1 battery supplier.

Ownership and history

East Penn began in 1946 when DeLight Breidegam Jr., a young Air Force veteran, started a battery business with his father, DeLight Sr., in a one-room creamery in the village of Bowers, Pennsylvania. Wartime had made battery materials scarce, so the two collected old batteries and rebuilt them to new for returning GIs who needed their vehicles running. The Deka brand name arrived in 1947, a combination of founder DeLight and early partner Karl Gasche, and the company still ships new Deka products every year.

From a one-room shop with five automotive batteries, East Penn has grown into one of the world's leading battery manufacturers, with more than 10,500 full-time employees, 515 product designs, and operations across the United States and abroad. It remains private and family-owned, with no public listing and no private-equity parent, and describes its core values as unchanged since 1946. Leadership was restructured in 2025 into separate chief executive and president roles: Pete Stanislawczyk became CEO and Christy Weeber became President, both effective in late September 2025, as Chris Pruitt moved to Executive Chairman after a 31-year career.

Facilities and scale

East Penn operates what it calls the world's largest single-site lead battery manufacturing facility: a 520-acre complex in Berks County, Pennsylvania, with more than 3 million square feet of building space. The campus houses four automotive battery plants, a motive power plant, a stationary battery plant, two oxide facilities, the smelter and refinery, four technical centers, and two injection molding plants. A distribution network of 89 warehouse and distribution locations across the US and Canada is anchored by a central hub in Topton, Pennsylvania, served by more than 750 tractors, trucks, and trailers that also collect spent batteries for recycling.

Growth has pushed the footprint beyond Pennsylvania. The company runs manufacturing in Corydon, Iowa, and an AGM battery plant in Temple, Texas that has operated since 2022 with roughly 350 employees. In April 2026, East Penn announced a $110 million expansion of the Temple plant, adding 175,000 square feet and 48 jobs, with a groundbreaking set for June 2026 and completion targeted for fall 2028, aimed at rising reserve-power and data-center demand for AGM batteries.

Certifications and quality

East Penn's certifications page lists IATF 16949:2016, the automotive quality management standard, alongside ISO 9001:2015 for quality, ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management, and ISO 27001:2022 for information security. IATF 16949 is the expected baseline for automotive battery programs, and East Penn presents the set as evidence of its commitment to quality and environmental standards. Certificate issue dates are not published on the page, so these are reported here as current claims. The company frames environmental performance as part of quality, pointing to its closed-loop recycling and to model status for lead recycling, plastics recycling, wastewater treatment, and acid reclamation.

Sourcing evidence

East Penn appears in US customs records as a heavy importer, with 6,485 sea shipments on record from January 2015 through September 2026 and a most recent shipment on September 21, 2026. The import mix reads two ways. Part of it is battery product from foreign makers, led by Sebang Global Battery of South Korea, Banner of Germany, and Rombat of Romania. The other part is capital equipment: battery-plant machinery from specialist builders such as TBS Engineering and Rosendahl Nextrom. Importing cast-strap machines, oxide equipment, and molding lines is the signature of a company building batteries at scale, not reselling finished goods. Bills of lading also record a large accessories lane, booster cables, terminals, and clamps, from Taiwanese suppliers DHC Specialty and Best Lucky International.

Seven shown of a supplier base that spans dozens of foreign vendors across 41 recorded names.

By origin, the record splits almost evenly between Europe (50.7% of shipments) and Asia (48.0%). South Korea leads with 1,549 shipments, followed by Germany at 1,171, Taiwan at 768, the United Kingdom at 608, and Hungary at 574, with France, Vietnam, and Romania rounding out the top lanes. Product codes are dominated by HS 8507.10, lead-acid starter batteries, and by battery-manufacturing machinery. Import activity is steady rather than seasonal: month-of-year frequency runs between roughly 420 and 620 shipments with no dead months, though the most recent single month dipped against its year-earlier level, a short-window blip against a consistent baseline. Customs-derived shipping spend is estimated near $17.1 million cumulative, but cost data covers only about 35% of shipments, so treat it as an order-of-magnitude figure rather than an audited one.

Coverage caveats: these are US ocean-freight records only. Air, truck, and rail movements do not appear; some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers; and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does East Penn Manufacturing make?

East Penn Manufacturing makes lead-acid batteries under the Deka brand across four divisions: transportation (automotive, truck, marine, powersport), motive power (lift trucks and material handling), reserve power (UPS, telecom, and data-center energy storage), and wire, cable, and battery accessories. It offers 515 product designs and adds lithium capability through its Navitas Systems subsidiary.

Who owns East Penn Manufacturing?

East Penn Manufacturing is private and family-owned, founded by the Breidegam family in 1946 and still independent, with no public listing and no private-equity parent. Its executive team was restructured in 2025: Pete Stanislawczyk is CEO, Christy Weeber is President, and founder-era successor Chris Pruitt serves as Executive Chairman.

Where is East Penn Manufacturing located?

East Penn's headquarters and main plant sit on a 520-acre, 3-million-square-foot single-site complex on Deka Road in Lyon Station, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The company also runs manufacturing in Corydon, Iowa and Temple, Texas, plus a distribution network of 89 locations across the US and Canada and a Canadian subsidiary.

How many employees does East Penn Manufacturing have?

East Penn Manufacturing reports more than 10,500 full-time employees. It is one of the largest employers in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and has continued to add jobs through recent US expansions, including a 2026 project in Temple, Texas.

What certifications does East Penn Manufacturing hold?

East Penn Manufacturing lists IATF 16949:2016 for automotive quality, ISO 9001:2015 for quality management, ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management, and ISO 27001:2022 for information security. IATF 16949 is the standard baseline for automotive battery suppliers.

Who are East Penn Manufacturing's customers?

East Penn is a major original-equipment and aftermarket battery supplier, and its Deka brand is widely stocked in the automotive, marine, powersport, and material-handling channels. The company surfaces sustainability partnerships with Honda and John Deere on its own site; most original-equipment programs in this category are not publicly disclosed.

Last verified September 27, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.