Sorry, the title is inaccurate. Kyocera did buy Ryobi, but not the Ryobi tool brand that most ToolGuyd readers know about.
As discussed in our tool brand corporate affiliations guide, TTI owns the Ryobi power tool and accessories business division in most parts of the world: North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
That entire business is through a sort of licensing arrangement – I think. It’s complicated. The last I looked into things, I read that TTI OWNED the Ryobi brand name in these spaces, meaning it’s not as simple as a licensing agreement.
A few months ago, Kyocera acquired Ryobi Limited’s power tool business. Here’s the press release. Thank you to everyone who wrote in about this at the time! I had decided not to post about it previously, partly out of concern it would cause confusion. But it seems that there’s a lot of confusion out there anyway.
I’ve tried to look into the non-TTI-related Ryobi tool brand before, and I didn’t find much. Even now, if you go to the new Kyocera page for the brand’s tools, you’ll find PDFs titled as being part of their 2011 catalog.
I unfortunately cannot find it at the moment, but TTI also issued a release, clarifying that their worldwide operations are completely unaffected by the Kyocera-Ryobi Limited deal.
Ryobi Limited has said the same, here.’
Ryobi brand power tools sold in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, will remain available in these regions, with Techtronic Industries Co., Ltd., a Hong Kong-based company that has no capital relationship with Ryobi, continuing as the manufacturer and distributor of these products.
The “other” Ryobi brand has always been very unfamiliar to me. Will Kyocera build the brand up? If so, then maybe that will change.
Do you own any Ryobi tools, outside the ones purchased in the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, or New Zealand?