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Exide Launches 'Recharging Exide'

15 November 1999

Exide Launches 'Recharging Exide'

           Exide Embarks on Enterprise-wide Initiative to Redefine
                  Global Mission, Strategy and Organization

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 12 -- Exide Corporation, the world's
largest manufacturer of lead-acid batteries, is undergoing a business
transformation to become the world's leading provider of "electrical energy
storage" solutions as its new future vision.
    The 118-year-old North American-based company, with annual revenues of
approximately $2.4 billion and operations in 19 countries, has embarked on a
company-wide initiative to redefine its global mission, strategy, and
organization, called "Recharging Exide."
    The work is being conducted in partnership with Benchmarking Partners, a
research-based consulting firm with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
    "With Benchmarking Partners' help," said Robert A. Lutz, Exide's Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer, "we are establishing a new foundation for the
company based on collaboration which will unfold throughout the company over
the next six to 18 months."
    "Recharging Exide" includes four components:
    -- Definition of the global business strategy;
    -- Assessment and definition of the global business architecture -
      organization, process, and people for the new strategy;
    -- Identification and implementation of cost reduction and streamlining
      opportunities;
    -- Development of change management and communications programs including
      defining new skill sets and roles needed at the company.

    "We believe this program is an important first step in Exide's continued
growth, our expansion into new businesses and the extension of our global
reach," concluded Lutz.
    "Our goal in working with Exide," added Tim Simard, managing director of
Benchmarking Partners, "was to assist the company's representatives in clearly
defining what kind of company they want it to be in the future, and then work
together in 'architecting' and implementing world-class solutions that will
make that vision reality."
    Exide Corporation, with annual revenues of approximately $2.4 billion and
operations in 19 countries, is the world's largest manufacturer of automotive
and industrial lead-acid batteries.  Further information about Exide's
businesses and products is available at http://www.exideworld.com.
    Benchmarking Partners is the CEO team's partner focused on assisting
companies through organizational transformations that will reinvent them for
the net economy.  By applying best business practices and best-in-class
information technology within the enterprise and across e-commerce trading
partners, Benchmarking Partners helps clients to accelerate strategic and
tangible return on investment (ROI).  Further information about Benchmarking
Partners is available at http://www.benchmarking.com