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A few weeks ago, in addition to very subtly announcing their acquisition of Waterloo, Stanley Black & Decker offered some updates about what they’ve been doing with their Craftsman brand.

First, where will we be able to buy Craftsman tools once Stanley Black & Decker gets to producing them?


Ace will support Craftsman on hardware channel.

Lowes will support Craftsman on home center channel.

Amazon will also be selling Craftsman tools, online.

SBD wants to make Craftsman tools more available to users than ever before, and it looks like they’ll be able to achieve this easily.

It’s expected that the first tools will hit store shelves in the second half of 2018. In other words, probably the late summer and fall, with an emphasis during the winter holiday shopping season.

They say that “support is overwhelming for the iconic brand,” and that there will inevitably be greater demand than supply in 2018.

Relaunching the Craftsman brand under SBD will require a “multi-year transition period.”

In general, SBD launches 1000 new core tools each year. That won’t change, and “can’t change.” There’s a need to launch “several thousand” Craftsman products, and that’s in addition to everything that SBD’s brands are already working on.

As impatient as I might be, I can understand the care they’re taking to do things right. I do wish that they were more vocal about what’s going on behind the scenes. But for the time being, I’m happy to pluck news like this from investor materials.

I really wonder what the terms of the hand tool guarantee will look like. Will Ace and Lowes be honoring it, or Amazon too?

With SBD committed to manufacturing many Craftsman tools in the USA, I have been thinking about what I will look to buy first. Personally, I’m curious to see what their ratcheting wrenches will look like. Will there be USA-made Craftsman power tools?