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As you might have seen in our Tool Brands: Who Owns What? guide, Stanley Black & Decker owns a lot of tool brands.
Sometimes it can be unclear how these brands are positioned. Back when Stanley Black & Decker had their luncheon press events – ah, I do miss those – they would show a presentation slide describing the different brands as being aimed at consumers, tradesmen, residential contractors, “sophisticated hobbyists,” commercial contractors, and so forth.
With a lot of overlapping brands, it can be helpful to understand how all the different SBD tool brands mesh together.
In this chart put together for investors, it shows Stanley Black & Decker positioning for most of their Global Tools and Storage brands, plus Craftsman, Irwin, and Lenox – recent brand acquisitions that are still being integrated into SBD.
The Y axis has markers for Opening Price Point, Middle Price Point, and High Price Point, OPP, MPP, and HPP, respectively.
The X axis is separated into consumer, tradesman, professional, and automotive/industrial user categories.
Black & Decker: Unsurprising, Black & Decker is target towards consumers at lower pricing.
Bostitch: Pro users slightly under middle pricing.
Craftsman: A wide range of tradesmen and pro users at a little higher than middle pricing.
Dewalt: Pro, automotive, and industrial users, at mid to high pricing.
Facom: Industrial and automotive users at high pricing
Irwin: Tradesmen and some professional users at entry to mid level pricing. (That’s a little surprising, that it’s being positioned below Stanley.)
Lenox: Professional and industrial users at mid to high pricing
Mac Tools: Industrial and automotive users at high pricing.
Porter Cable: Tradesmen and pro users at entry to mid pricing.
Proto: Industrial and automotive users at high pricing.
Stanley: Trademen and pro users at just over mid level pricing.
Stanley FatMax: Professional, automotive, and industrial users, at just under mid level pricing.
In some cases, it seems brands should be grouped together, but are arranged in alphabetical order, such as Facom, Mac Tools, and Proto, at the top right of the chart.
Others are surprises, such as how Stanley is positioned above Irwin. That they’re positioned well above Irwin might only be a consequence of having to fit a lot of data in a single chart. Still, Stanley > Irwin. Craftsman being just above Stanley isn’t really surprising.
One thing that does surprise me is seeing Craftsman span much of the chart horizontally, indicating that the brand will be aimed at nearly all users, except for the least demanding consumer market.
However, I would have thought Stanley to be targeted towards consumers, since they seem to be marketed towards consumers. With that in mind, I think the chart should be loosely interpreted. Even so, it does give rare insight into what the folks at Stanley Black & Decker think of and intend for their own brands.
There are a few other things that the investor materials brought to light.
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In describing “Industry 4.0” happenings, they show an intentional trend towards localized manufacturing. There’s also a chart that shows their goal to bring the North America figure from around 40% in 2010 and 50% in 2017, to around 60% in 2020 and beyond.
“Make where we sell… Buy where we make… Leverage Industry 4.0.
“Advanced Automation” will be a part of that, but someone goofed, and instead of posting an image of an industrial robot, they show a toy robotic arm, the OWI robot arm kit, which can be found for ~$45. Here’s what I want to know – which of SBD’s tool brands will they use to put these little guys together with? =P
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Hmm. Innovation, with an arrow connecting a Stanley FatMax tape measure to a rendering of a Craftsman tape measure.
SBD has already pledged to bring Craftsman tool production back to the USA, and I AM SO EXCITED FOR IT!!
I spy an image of the “Made in USA: All Craftsman sockets are wrenches are proudly made in the USA” scan I took from a 2008 Craftsman tool catalog.
I created that scanned image for this post: Open Letter to Craftsman and Sears – Why Ax Professional and USA-Made Tools?! nearly 5-1/2 years ago, where I gave Craftsman an earful.
The Capability to build upon legacy? That sounds good, but…
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Capability is one thing. The willingness to do so, and return the Craftsman brand to its USA-made roots?
Yes, yes, yes, yes! But stop teasing, and please tell us more!
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I’m going to be completely honest here – I’m not quite sure what this means. Does this “Acquisitive growth trends” chart show how each major SBD brand benefits or grows resulting from the Craftsman, Irwin, and Lenox brand purchases?
If so, I’m surprised to see such a huge bump-up for Dewalt, 71%. I suppose they can potentially benefit from some of the Lenox tool offerings, such as Lenox pipe wrenches, cutters, and other plumbing tools. Will Dewalt adapt many Lenox offerings in order to better compete with Milwaukee in several currently under-served product categories?
What will the next year or two bring for Dewalt?
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Dewalt is pursuing a Cordless Jobsite (as are most if not all other professional cordless tool brands).
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This is how things looked.
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And this is what the opportunities landscape currently looks like.
The Future of FlexVolt: 15+ new tools and 20+ accessories expected in 2018-2019. They also plan for “continued expansion into small gas engines market” and will “validate technology expansion in larger gas engines, a ~$3B+ market.”
15+ new tools and 20+ accessories? What do you think they’re working on?