A few weeks back it was it was announced that Stanley Black & Decker would sell off the popular woodworking brand Delta to the Taiwanese company Chang Type Industries. Ltd. (TOTY). As huge multinational companies who own all our long time favorite tool brands pass them around like cards in a game of poker what does this mean for brand dependability? How does it play out for Stanley as a company with all its other brands and what about the new Delta Power Equipment Corp moving forward?
Stanley Black & Decker
When Stanley acquired Black & Decker over a year ago the sale of Delta must have been one of the likely scenarios. With over 30 other brands under the umbrella including DeWalt, Porter Cable, Bostitch, Mac Tools and several other highly recognizable names finding a clear focus for the similar brands is not a simple task. Seeing hand tools added in both the DeWalt & Bostitch brands, clearly these changes are well underway. It will probably be another 12-18 months before the full pictures is painted but the DeWalt brand has been busy playing a little catch up getting a full line of 12V Max Tools out, new compact routers, new rotary hammers and several new innovative accessories. It looks as though we may again come to expect continuous innovation from the flagship DeWalt brand which has been lacking for several years prior to the acquisition. The www.DeltaPorterCable.com website has already changed to simply www.PorterCable.com with all the Delta products to be removed shortly. Hopefully this means we will also see more focus given to the Porter Cable brand which perhaps had lost its way in the various mergers over the past several years.
Delta Power Equipment
There are several reasons we think this news is good for Delta fans. For starters the company is getting a new facility in South Carolina as a base of operations and to continue to build the Unisaw. New investment in facilities means many more years of quality products as well as many potentially new innovative products. The leadership of the new company in Bryan Whiffen, CEO and Norman MacDonald, COO is also a positive in our eyes. Both were senior VPs at the Techronic Industries North America (TTI) also a massive foreign company who owns Milwaukee Power Tool as their flagship tool brand. Several years ago when TTI purchased Milwaukee we had some serious doubts but over time the acquisition proved to a very good thing for the brand overall, allowing Milwaukee to focus intensely on who their target customers are and ability to create innovative new products specifically for that audience. With Delta’s new leadership being from this culture perhaps that means we will see similar revitalization of this brand. The final reason we think this is a good place for Delta is because the TOTY company brings a vast background of experience manufacturing tools and parts for many other of the most popular tool companies including TTI & Stanley Black & Decker.
These are just our own thoughts on the subject we could be total off but we are optimistic this was a good move for everyone involved. At the end of the day as a tool junkie we just want to see better tools, with new innovations, at cheaper prices, built at a higher quality and in the US… What is that to much to ask for?
