When Craftsman announced a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Texas, the company said it would “revitalize” and “bring back their American manufacturing heritage.”
The $90 million Forth Worth facility would employ 500 full-time employees and an army of state-of-the-art machinery to produce US-made tools from domestic steel.
It has even been claimed that using high-tech robots for much of the manufacturing would bring production costs down to levels common in China.
But the entire process became a headache for Craftsman – owned by Stanley Black & Decker – when the automated system failed and the number of tools produced dropped.
In the end, the factory produced so few tools that they’ve become a collector’s item on eBay.
In March of this year, just three and a half years after breaking ground on the 45,000-square-foot factory, the company announced the closure of the plant.
It was a publicized example of American manufacturers’ push to re-erect offshore facilities on American soil and use American steel, fueled by government incentives.
The Stanley Black & Decker plant in Forth Worth pictured here comprised 45,000 and cost $90 million
The Craftsman tools produced at the factory are available in such small numbers that they have now become collector’s items
Originally, the idea behind the factory was to make the brand’s iconic wrenches, ratchets and sockets out of American steel to satisfy consumer demand for American-made tools.
The plant’s great appeal lay in its use of what the company described as “some of the most advanced manufacturing technologies available”.
The use of robotic machinery would reduce human intervention and increase productivity, but workers said the plant was doomed from the start.
Tom Felty had worked at the factory as an electroplating engineer and had relocated from North Carolina to Texas to take part in the move.
He told the Wall Street Journal, “It should have been different.” It was meant to bring back the Craftsman brand. It was all these new technologies.
“That’s why I moved from North Carolina to Texas to be a part of it, and it was an absolute disaster. They spent millions of dollars to make these machines work.”
A YouTube video uploaded by a Belarusian company that supplied some of the machinery shows a steel rod, known as a billet, being cut off by a guillotine.
Tom Felty, pictured here, worked at the factory as an electroplating engineer and relocated from North Carolina to Texas to take part in the move
A machine then rolls the bright red billet into shape and a robot places it in a press.
The video then shows more machines moving it through stations until it has been formed into a fully formed ratchet.
Jeremy Scheffer told the WSJ that sockets sometimes arrived without metal that hadn’t been properly machined or without the “Craftsman” name embossed on them.
Tool designer Greg Heltne said workers made thousands of socket wrenches, but without ratchets and wrenches, retailers didn’t want them.
He told the store, “If the customer says, ‘I want everything I ordered,’ and we can’t deliver it, there’s not much that can be done.”
Stanley had predicted the factory would make 60 million tools annually, but former employees said in the weeks after the shutdown they weren’t sure anything made it onto the storage shelves.
Shortly after the closure, domestically made Craftsman socket sets began appearing at retailers.
Tool designer Greg Heltne, pictured here, said workers made thousands of sockets, but without ratchets and wrenches retailers didn’t want them.
eBay listings now cost twice the original retail price of the tool kit, with sellers basing their price on the tools never being made again
Since then, the tools have gained cult status due to their rarity. Some eBay retailers are charging close to $200 for sets that retailed for $89.98.
A listing said, “The Texas plant has closed after a limited run, so there is a limited supply of these USA sets.”
“They are no longer manufactured and will not be available in the future.”
Jeffrey Ansell, who was the company’s president of global tooling and warehousing at the time of the factory’s announcement, left his position in 2020 and has since been succeeded by four other executives.
Last month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges against Stanley Black & Decker and Ansell for non-disclosure of fringe benefits.
The company has failed to disclose at least $1.3 million in fringe benefits and personal benefits paid to four of its officers and one of its directors.
The fringe benefits mainly related to expenses in connection with the use of company aircraft by executives.
Ansell received undisclosed compensation consisting of $280,000 in personal expenses, which he billed to the company.
He settled with the commission to settle allegations that he caused the company to violate book and record rules and paid a $75,000 civil penalty.
Pictured here is the company’s former vice president of tooling and storage, Jeffrey Ansell, who was in charge when the plant was announced but has since left the company
The company, the world’s largest tooling company, is headquartered (shown here) in Connecticut
Craftsman was previously owned by Sears, which had moved production of the tools to China a few years earlier to save money.
Stanley Black & Decker bought the company for $900 million in 2017, with then-CEO James Loree saying they hoped to “re-Americanize” the brand.
The Fort Worth property is now up for sale after a decision was made to close earlier this year.
Stanley merged with Black & Decker in 2010 and bought Newell Brands’ tools division in 2017, creating a giant company.
Last year, revenue soared to a staggering $17 billion, compared to $3.7 billion in 2009.
A company spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal, “We strived to make Craftsman mechanical tools in a new, innovative way.”
“The events of Covid and the challenges in the supply chain, coupled with technology that did not meet our expectations, led to the cessation of operations.”