Stanley Moving Production of Craftsman Wrenches Back to the US From China

[bill70j]

Stanley Black & Decker, which bought the Craftsman brand name from Sears in 2017, is investing $90million to open a plant in Fort Worth, employing 500 to make 10 million wrenches and ratchets and 50 million sockets, annually.

They also say they want to increase US-made Craftsman tools to 50% from 30% today. Hope this will include Craftsman power tools, which IMO are terrible tools today.

Signs of a revival of what was once known as a quality tool brand.

 

[markba633csi]

I wonder though if the price will go up to the point that people will buy other brands instead- we shall see

 

[bill70j]

I wonder though if the price will go up to the point that people will buy other brands instead- we shall see

Good point. The article says "Robots and fast-forging presses will help boost output about 25% above the older machinery used to make Craftsman wrenches in China, helping keep production costs at the new plant in line with those in China....."

So it sounds like they are at least trying to keep the prices low.

(Don't know if this article is accessible without a subscription, but here is a link to it.)

 

[cjtoombs]

I've been a bit worried about what would happen to the Craftsman brand. The trend in recent years is for some hedge fund to buy up a well known and well regarded brand, move production to China and lower the quality of the product then sell them for big bucks while people still think the brand is good (I'm looking at you Delta and Crescent). It's good to see that Craftsman may not go the way of the dodo.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I see the lowes stores near me now carry a pretty full line of craftsman tools, and tool boxes. They reset the whole tool department to make room for all the stuff they brought in. Pretty cool to see craftsman tools still alive, I earned my living with them for many years.

 

[Canus]

Even if the prices are slightly higher than they are now they will still be cheaper than Snap-on and Matco.

 

[MikeInOr]

Stanley's upper end lines are Proto and Mac.

My father worked for Ingersoll Rand / Proto -> Stanley / Proto -> Stanley for 38 years. I got to see a lot of the production of the socket division.

When I was a kid I lost so many lead weights fishing in the rocky Clackamas / Willamette that my father gave me Proto sockets to use instead of the expensive lead weights.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

i, for the life of me, can't understand how you could ship ANYTHING half way around the world and NOT make it cheaper and better here

 

[dulltool17]

i, for the life of me, can't understand how you could ship ANYTHING half way around the world and NOT make it cheaper and better here

You aren't alone in that thought!

 

[cjtoombs]

You aren't alone in that thought!

How many sockets can you get on a container ship? Voyage probably costs a million dollars, but if you can haul 100 million sockets, that's a penny per for shipping.