Alevo Manufacturing Quits Energy Storage Efforts

Alevo Manufacturing Inc. and Alevo USA Inc., the two U.S. subsidiaries of Swiss company The Alevo Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Aug. 18. Both are based in Concord, where Alevo kept offices and its manufacturing plant at the former Philip Morris manufacturing site.

Each list debts in the $10 million to $50 million range. Alevo Manufacturing listed assets in the same range, but Alevo USA says its assets are less, totaling $1 million to $10 million.

The largest single creditor for both is Matthews-based Century Contractors, which is owed more than $2.2 million by Alevo Manufacturing. The only other creditor owed more than $1 million by either subsidiary is Alantum Advanced Technology Materials of Dalian City, China, which is owed $1.02 million by Alevo Manufacturing.

The company started operation in Concord in 2014 with enormous fanfare and a promise of 2,500 jobs when the plant went into full production. It never got close. It had 290 employees at Concord when it closed. All but 45 have been laid off. Those workers will remain at the plant through September as the company closes up shop in preparation for liquidation of its assets.

Alevo has struggled to produce the 2-megawatt utility-scale batteries - housed in 40-foot tractor trailer carriers - that were central to the battery system it sought to market. More than three years after opening, it had only a single production line and little actual production. Only one battery - installed in March for the municipal utility of Lewes Delaware - has been delivered.

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