Apex Tool Group (ATG) Tour

[Barnabas]

I got to tour the Apex Tool Group facility in Apex North Carolina as part of the national Manufacturing Day program. 118 manufacturers and community/technical colleges held open houses across the state this year in an effort to get students and anyone else to come learn about the great careers in the manufacturing industry. Since Apex Tool Group manufactures tools, I figured my fellow Garage Journalists would appreciate a behind-the-scenes tour.

This 500,000 square foot building was originally where Lufkin manufactured tape measures. (It is on Lufkin Drive.) Later it became a Cooper Tool building and then Apex Tool Group.

 

[Barnabas]

Just inside the front door is an old machine that was used to cut files. They used to manufacture Nicholson files here.

 

[Barnabas]

Now you know what I look like.

 

[Barnabas]

They have over 200 people working in this building, and they do no manufacturing here. This is their largest warehouse/distribution center as well as home to their reasearch and development, creative/marketing, sales, testing, and prototypes.

Here is their Marketing area where you can see the droop test between their Lufkin tape measure and the competition.

 

[Barnabas]

This is the Creative department where they do the design of the labels, hang tags, packaging, displays, etc. They even do the design here for their GearWrench NASCAR car.

 

[Barnabas]

Research and development (R&D) area where they design new products.

 

[Barnabas]

They have lots of warehouse space.

 

[Barnabas]

Here is a look inside the Testing Lab. This machine is a drop tester where it drops tools. It is getting ready to drop test a Lufkin tape measure.

 

[ChrisLS8]

So basically the graveyard site of husked and gutted American Manufacturers? Cool beans

 

[Barnabas]

If you look closely in this picture, just below the Stop button is a Wiss tin snip that is being tested. (Handles are to the left). They take a random tin snip and have it cut thousands of times to see if the manufacturing is as good as it should be. It is tested for up to 8 miles of tin snipping. The steel band to the far right of the picture is what it is cutting.

 

[Barnabas]

This machine tests repeated use if their Lufkin tape measures.

 

[Barnabas]

Warehouse area

 

[Barnabas]

Really tall part of the warehouse with special forklifts.

 

[Barnabas]

This is where boxes gather to be shipped out.

 

[Barnabas]

 

[Barnabas]

 

[Barnabas]

Gear Wrench tool boxes stacked high.

 

[DSLTRK]

Thanks for the photos.

I wouldn't have many positive things to say to the management though.

I haven't bought any Apex Tools since they moved the manufacturing away.

And the Crescent tools are too gimmicky and bulky. Oh well. Thanks again.

 

[nieuport17]

Thanks for the photos.
Interesting to see what is going on with Apex.

One of the photo has Gearwrench tool boxes. Didn’t realize they have that.

Do they just have Gearwrench and Crecent tools in the warehouse ? Or Husky also ?

 

[Professional Tool User]

Looks more like a distribution centre to me than a factory. I'd be more interested in what the Apex tool group factories/contracting factories in Taiwan and China look like.

 

[paulsomlo]

118 manufacturers and community/technical colleges held open houses across the state this year in an effort to get students and anyone else to come learn about the great careers in the manufacturing industry.

Doing what - outsourcing?

 

[Fedwrench]

Doing what - outsourcing?

Inventory specialist, someone has to count all of those boxes of stuff.

one photo showed a sign saying the weller soldering irons were on quality hold

Back in the day that place probably made quite a few different tools.

Now it's probably their largest distribution center in the USA.

The testing they do there, is it more like quality control? I mean the tools are shipped there from PRC China and Taiwan as finished products ready to sell or are they designing new tape measures and shears in that facility. I'm confused

 

[JR 42]

Thanks for the pics! I was hoping against hope they actually still made something here. Not a big fan of Apex, and don't buy their stuff (occasional NOS Armstrong, but would rather get Danaher Armstrong when possible).

 

[Empty Pockets]

Thanks for posting. I would rather see the shipping and warehouse facilities at HJE. I much rather look at USA made tools

 

[Barnabas]

I asked which they move more of, Crescent or Gear Wrench, and the reply was Husky. They also distribute B&D Craftsman.

 

[Barnabas]

Inventory specialist, someone has to count all of those boxes of stuff.

one photo showed a sign saying the weller soldering irons were on quality hold

Back in the day that place probably made quite a few different tools.

Now it's probably their largest distribution center in the USA.

The testing they do there, is it more like quality control? I mean the tools are shipped there from PRC China and Taiwan as finished products ready to sell or are they designing new tape measures and shears in that facility. I'm confused

They are designing the new tools at this location as well as testing the tools that come from the factories.

This is their largest distribution center in the US.

 

[Barnabas]

Thanks for the pics! I was hoping against hope they actually still made something here. Not a big fan of Apex, and don't buy their stuff (occasional NOS Armstrong, but would rather get Danaher Armstrong when possible).

Apex Tool donated all of their discontinued Armstrong, Allen and Nicholson tools to our local Habitat Restores. Now I have a lot of those tools at a substantial discount.

 

[CR888]

Sadly Apex imports/distributes most of its product.

 

[Fly YX]

If you think that's bad you should see the old Milwaukee power tool plant. It's mostly offices and warehouse space. Haven't been there in a long time. Last I heard they were supposed to make it bigger but I still don't think they're bringing back any manufacturing. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[Barnabas]

Doing what - outsourcing?

There are lots of manufacturers in our state. Most have modernized with advanced manufacturing lines.

Lots of Chinese companies have set up manufacturing in our state, making goods for Americans.

Lots of German and other European companies manufacture products in North Carolina.

Right down the road from Apex Tool is the factory where Dell makes their high-end computer servers.

NC sold $32,729,770,000 in exports to other countries in 2018.
NC exports lots of airplanes and airplane parts. The GE engine plant in Durham is quite impressive. Down the road from there is AW who makes transmissions for Toyotas.

If you have seen the movie Norma Rae, it's not like that in North Carolina anymore.

 

[PFSard]

Thanks for the tour. And for presenting some of the facts in post #30. People often tend to only present one side of the import/export and outsourcing et al. Basically just the negatives. A real assessment would be found to be fairly complicated.

 

[JR 42]

I think the guy's point was that Apex has offshored all manufacturing of all their products. Glad to hear manufacturing is still alive in NC.

 

[anndel]

Thanks for the tour. Sad though no manufacturing at that plant, just distributing import stuff. Saw the box marked Apex Tool Group, MADE IN CHINA. I wonder how much tariff is on that box.

 

[WittHay]

Thanks, for the pictures. Not sure where but Wiss aviation tin snips and most HK Porter cutters are made in the US. Local tool company always has the US flag when it advertises specials on Wiss

ts a big warehouse and R+D centre that employs US citizens. Does anyone really want to see pictures of the huge Milwaukee/Ryobi complex in China and the 13,000 people that work there

 

[mikebaker1129]

Thanks for sharing !

 

[jsmeece]

Apex Tool donated all of their discontinued Armstrong, Allen and Nicholson tools to our local Habitat Restores. Now I have a lot of those tools at a substantial discount.

I am missing some Armstrong wrenches. If you have spares to sell, I would be interested.

 

[Man of Many Vices]

I apologize in advance for this response to the Apex Tool Group Tour.

First to disappear overseas were the large machine tool companies. Then it was the components produced by those machine tools. And then the completed products manufactured from those components. Now, thanks to Apex, Mitt Romney and many others, it is the hand tools used to fabricate, assemble, install and repair those finished products... the kinds of tools we all use.

Or do we?

Stuff that can be made overseas has already been exported. Stuff that has to be made or serviced here has been "imported." The presence of experienced American tradesmen on factory and shop floors, construction sites and service calls is becoming a relic of the past.

It is no longer limited to blue collar jobs. The emerging preference for foreign college graduates over American graduates with student loans, means the further loss of job opportunities in research, design, engineering, and other white collar fields.

Quality suffers. The heart of America weakens.

That's OK. Younger generations, conditioned to believe that "the latest is the greatest" and reject the past, will go for the splashy, flashy and trashy. That's OK because, as quality and durability goes down, consumption goes up. More distribution and fulfillment centers. More profits for the top.

I refuse to go along with this new world order. I buy only "vintage" American made hand tools that were actually made in America. I guess that means I am no longer relevant to the marketplace, another relic of the past.

In California, I feel like a polar bear on a shrinking iceberg. "Se Habla Espanol" is no longer just a courtesy, it is now a preference. Perhaps soon a requirement. Just the other day my doctor handed me a stack of new patient intake forms -- in Spanish. OK, doctor, I understand. I don't want to be here either. Maybe I ask too many questions.

So where does this all lead? Nobody wants to know. Yesterday is over; tomorrow may never come. It's all about today.

Before the sun sets, maybe we should think about where we are going, who is pulling the strings. Where do they want to take us?

 

[javyLSU]

^You really need to get over yourself. A lot of "us" here in America habla Espanol, Jack. So your Doctor's assistants made a mistake and handed you some Spanish forms... OH THE HORROR. Did you tell her to take back her burritos and go back to where she came from? And where have you heard that companies prefer to hire foreign college graduates over American graduates? As a manager at one of the largest companies in the USA, currently employing over 300,000 people, we sure don't "prefer" to hire foreign graduates...

I don't want to turn this into a political debate, but every time you buy a "vintage American made hand tool" you do nothing to support the American jobs still here that so many people claim to care so much about... You know, like the 200+ AMERICANS working in that Apex Tool building right now.

 

[javyLSU]

OP, thanks for sharing your tour of Apex Tool Group's operations - I appreciated the information and photos.

 

[The Fall]

In California, I felt like a polar bear on a shrinking iceberg due to inflated land prices. It had nothing to do with forms. I'm kind of proud I can speak passable Spanish as well.

Apex torpedoed quality lines of tools. They're pretty bad. Nevertheless, thanks for posting these photos. It's interesting to see where they're at.