I sold tools in the industrial market for years and we even had such good pricing I sold on Amazon as well. I even helped a guy on here one time with a return for Wright Tool. You'll notice I said that in the past tense. Tools are a cut throat market. My company did over $5million in tool sales a year so we could buy direct with the best pricing from Wright, Proto, Williams, Apex Tool Group (Gear Wrench, Armstrong, Crescent, etc), Klein, Channellock, etc. We also sold other industrial products but or niche was oilfield drilling equipment.
Even with all that we'd still have a hard time selling into certain markets or to the public. The problem is that the tool companies give all of their top distributors the best pricing so then it's just a race to the bottom to find out who will sell the stuff for the least. Some distributors handle certain tool lines and make as little as 5% - 10% gross profit margin on tools in hopes that their sales will reach a level where they can get a 10%-15% rebate.
One problem you'll have if you don't go with one of the big tool truck brands is that you won't have enough buying power to get to the top tier discount level. In fact many of them won't even set you up at all. I know for a fact Williams won't set-up tool truck operators as it creates competition for their parent companies Snap-On trucks. Also most will want you to warranty exchange the tool on the spot and then expect you to come to them for the warranty exchange. It doesn't sound that bad until you start having multiple warranty claims up in the air and it doesn't take too many before you can get burned. More than likely you'd have to start out going through a wholesaler like ORS Nasco to source tools. You can still be competitive and they'll have specials from time to time that are cheaper than even going factory direct. About the only thing you won't be able to compete with is the big box stores on their power tools. Lowes and Home Depot sells their power tools for stupid low margins, again pushing for a volume rebate at the end of the year to bring up their profit margin. They're happy to sell at a loss on a door buster deal to get people in the store buying other merchandise at a higher margin. In fact I even sent my purchasing people to Home Depot a few time to buy Milwaukee and Dewalt power tools that I knew they were selling at cost or below. It was cheaper than going direct to Milwaukee or through a wholesaler! There are a lot of advantages to going with a wholesaler. They have hubs nearby that are usually a day away on UPS and they can drop ship direct to your customer and if your're close to one you can will call material the same day. You'll have access and be able to compete on shop supplies like Wypall towels, aerosols, lights, etc. You'll also have easier credit terms than going direct to the manufacturer.
Overall Wright Tool was by far the best manufacturer I represented and they have a great staff. They had good drop shipping terms and they made very good product. In an automotive tech setting their offerings can be low though so I'd really suggest that if you do this you reach out to a wholesaler like ORS Nasco. You can buy just about any tool brand through them to include Wright, Proto plus all the ones I mentioned before and more. They can also do pneumatic tools but that's another extremely cut throat business.
Sometimes I miss the business because I got great deals on any tools I needed and often if I just inquired with my factory reps the next day a UPS box showed up with whatever I was asking about (within reason). It shows in my tool collection as I've got way more tools than most and they are all top notch made in the USA industrial brands. Having said that now that I'm out of the business I make enough to afford whatever tools I need and don't really have a desire to go back to it.
