HOPKINTON – Amanda Potter of Adirondack Battery, LLC, is watching her wholesale and retail battery supply business grow, thanks in part to a microloan from St. Lawrence County Local Development Corporation.

Living in a battery-based, off-grid inverter-powered home has made dealing with batteries a 24/7 experience for Potter. In 2010 she applied the knowledge gained through her personal experience to form the Hopkinton-based wholesale and retail distributor and supplier of multiple types of batteries.

As her expertise grew, Potter found she was able to provide superior product knowledge, battery sizing and identification, and recommendations for maintenance and charging.

She specializes in identifying battery issues and supplies new, fresh, high quality batteries to her customers through direct order and delivery service. She also offers a pickup service for expended batteries that can be recycled.

Adirondack Battery’s market covers a 100-mile radius from Hopkinton, which includes Clayton along the Canadian border to Plattsburg, down to the southern part of the Adirondacks and over to the Watertown area.

A $20,000 loan from the St. Lawrence County Local Development Corporation is supporting growth of the business through financing working capital, and helping to purchase testing and charging equipment. The loan will enable Adirondack Battery to expand its product line and reach a broader customer base. Funds will also be used to equip a mobile display that will demonstrate solar panels, an inverter wired to an AC panel box with receptacles, and storage batteries.

“This is the type of niche business that the SLCLDC microloan fund was designed to support,” said SLCLDC Chief Executive Raymond Fountain. “By being based at her home Amanda is able to keep her costs down while building the business to the point where she can add employees. We are happy to provide assistance to Adirondack Battery to support this growth.”

Potter has spent the last year learning the market and discovering opportunities in the industry. While a number of retailers offer batteries, not many deal in the upscale and diverse lines that Adirondack Battery supplies, and not with the knowledge and customer service Potter brings.

As the area’s distributor for Northeast Battery, she has access to brands such as Trojan, Odyssey, Enersys, and Fullriver. These companies have some of the finest and top selling batteries worldwide. For many of them, this is the first time their applications could be addressed by a local representative.

About the loan, Potter says, “This leg-up is providing me with the opportunity to provide all community members and businesses in northern New York with the very best renewable, reusable and recyclable batteries. Whether starting your car, truck, tractor, bike or boat, backing up the electricity to your furnace or oxygen machine, Adirondack Battery can supply you with the top-of-the-line batteries for every and all applications."

For more information contact Potter at Adirondack Battery, 212-2114 or adirondackbattery@gmail.com. A website www.adirondackbattery.com is under development.

About the St. Lawrence County Local Development Corporation

The St. Lawrence County Local Development Corporation is a not-for-profit corporation which administers a Microenterprise Revolving Loan Fund and a Microenterprise Grant Program.

The primary goal of this and related Local Development Corporation programs is to stimulate the inception and growth of private sector microenterprise businesses owned and operated by low-moderate income persons, or which create jobs for persons of low-moderate income.

The Local Development Corporation is administered through a partnership with the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency.

For further information call 379-9806 or visit www.slcida.com.