Columbia Falls battery firm lays off workforce

ViZn Energy, a Columbia Falls company that makes industrial-sized batteries the size of storage containers, laid off its workforce earlier this month.

In November, a federal tax lien was issued against the company for just over $1 million, according to county tax records.

The company furloughed more than 60 workers on March 16.

The layoffs mark a serious bump in the road for a company whose future was promoted as being bright.

The company had been named one of 15 Montana companies to watch in 2017 by the Montana High Tech Business Alliance. The company was founded in 2009 as Zinc Air, but there have been leadership changes recently. In January, the company announced that Stephen Bonner, who became chairman of its Board of Directors on Jan. 1, had also assumed the role of president and interim CEO following the resignation of Ron Van Dell.

Bonner was a director as well as president and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America for over 13 years. In addition to ViZn, he is currently an adviser to four private equity firms as well as an entrepreneur in residence at the Harvard Business School, according to the company’s website.

A woman who answered the phone at the company Friday said Bonner was not immediately available for comment.

The company has claimed over the years that its battery technology, which is designed to be used with solar- or wind-powered systems as an energy storage solution, was superior to other technologies because it was environmentally friendly.

A single battery is the size of a shipping container. It consists of two large tanks of liquid electrolytes, pumps and a “battery stack” of patented zinc membranes that store the energy. The technology has several advantages over other industrial-sizes units like lead acid, lithium ion or molten sodium batteries, claimed former ViZn President and CEO Craig Wilkins during an open house in 2016.

Wilkins is no longer with company, but was one of the founders and is still an investor. Contacted Friday, he was hopeful other investors could be brought on board to keep the company operational.

He said a key investor had left the company, though he declined to say who that was.

Chris Peterson is editor of the Hungry Horse News