We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
Stanley Black & Decker is selling the Delta brand, which will then move its operations to Anderson, S.C. The purchaser is TOTY, according to Popular Woodworking Magazine sources. TOTY is a Taiwanese company that currently produces many benchtop tools for Stanley Black & Decker, Craftsman and Ryobi.
The new company will be renamed Delta Power Equipment and be headed by Bryan Whiffen, who is now listed as the senior vice president for product development at Techtronic Industries North America Inc., a worldwide manufacturer of tools that also is located in Anderson, S.C.
Whiffen could not be reached for comment on Friday.
The company will invest more than $3.6 million and expects to generate 40 new jobs, according to a press release from the South Carolina Department of Commerce. And the new facility should be in operation by April. According to an internal document obtained by Popular Woodworking Magazine, the transition of ownership will take place over the next four months.
“Until further notice, nothing will change with ordering product, freight terms, pricing, product availability, service parts, etc. For the short term, it will be business as usual,” according to the memo.
This is the latest turn for one of the most respected names in woodworking equipment. The company has passed through a number of owners – Stanley obtained the company in July 2004 – since it was founded in 1919 by Herb Tautz in his garage in Milwaukee, Wisc.
Some of the unanswered questions at this point include what will become of Delta’s domestic manufacturing, which has been scaled back in recent generations. Recently the company garnered a lot of attention from customers and the press by unveiling its new American-made Unisaw.
Until we get some more information, here’s what we do know from the official press release:
“The new facility will allow Delta Power Equipment to continue its tradition of providing top-notch woodworking equipment to our customers. We look forward to establishing our new operations in Anderson County,” Whiffen says in the press release. “South Carolina provided us with the positive business environment and market access we were looking for when deciding where to locate. We appreciate all the support we have received from state and local officials.”
And Joe Taylor, the secretary of commerce for South Carolina, had this to say in the release:
“Delta Power Equipment Corp. has a long history as a leading producer of woodworking tools and we are pleased to have them as a part of South Carolina’s business community. The company’s decision to locate its new operations in South Carolina is another indication that our state’s business-friendly climate, talented workforce and exceptional market access are working to attract new investments that create jobs for South Carolinians. We recognize that Delta Power Equipment could have made this investment anywhere and thank them for choosing to do business in South Carolina,”
— Glen D. Huey
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
Follow the Money.
This explains the transition from Delta-Shopmaster tools being sold at Lowe’s a year ago, to the Porter Cable branded versions of the same tools being sold now. B&D must be trying to position PC in the same space the lower end Delta tools used to occupy. I am more curious to know if the Rockwell name went along for the ride, and I suspect that it did not. This would allow B&D to sell the exact same higher end tools that it branded as Delta, under the Rockwell banner. Either way B&D doesn’t really loose anything, they still have a few brands too many.
TTI/TOTY did definitely gain something, that being a historic American brand name that is associated with stationary power tools, something they haven’t been able to acquire previously. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Delta branded stationary power tools in Home Depot by Christmas of 2011.
Aside from the Japanese brands of Makita and Hitachi, and the european brands of Metabo, Bosch, and Festool, B&D and TTI are now the 800-lb gorillas of the power tool world. I’m wondering who consolidates next.
John,
It is my understanding that Delta has been transitioning to US labor. However, it appears that if those product are made in SC(also where Boeing will eventually move)they should continue manufacture in Taiwan.
And the logo is changing to a Confederate flag?
You sound just like the folks of whom you are trying to make fun. For your particular information GFY and ESAD is relocating to your community.
So I assume what you are saying is that the tools will still be made in the US or, what many companies have done, the final assembly will be in the US and the machine components will me made in Taiwan. Eventually the product manufacturing will transition to Taiwan, one way or the other. And where are all those jobs?
I wonder if PC goes along for the ride?
And it will gin and spin cotton.
And the logo is changing to a Confederate flag?