Facom sockets made in USA
- Thread starter Dan5speight
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Farmall450
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Dan5speight
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COO is not marked on the sockets only the facom logo and part numbers will get a pic of them tomorrow when I get into work.
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Dan5speight
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my facom 440 combination spanners are awesome they came with the COO being claimed as Taiwan, well the 30 & 32 I got today anyways
willhollin
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Could be SK.
Farmall450
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willhollin
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SK were owned by Facom from 1985 till 2005 I believe.
neophyte
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Or, when in doubt, guess Danaher!
Facom used to own SK. The tools from that period would probably have packaging that says SK Facom. During the period when Facom owned SK, SK was selling items under the SK brand that were made in France, and Facom was selling items that were made in the USA under the Facom label.
My understanding is Facom must have had too much debt, and the management at SK managed to acquire the company from Facom. SK was supposed to continue distributing the Facom tools in the USA but Stanley then purchased Facom. The distribution deal got nixed with Stanley deciding to take over distribution. A lot of Facom tools got sold to close out companies like Epsteins.
The socket could be old stock from SK. Alternately if the sockets are new it could be Stanley/Proto/Blackhawk production, either because whatever facility had been making the sockets wasn't able to produce then to the proper standards, or because Stanley had extra production capacity that wasn't being filled in the USA.
Farmall450
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Dan5speight
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The sockets dont have any sk markings on them just the facom logo and the respective part numbers, come to think of it the sockets are a satin chrome and all my new facom sockets are polished chrome so there could be a possibility that they are NOS. However I wouldnt think that a company like RS would keep this type of product on there shelves for at least 7 years and the packaging all looks clean and new.
I can think of a few ways:
1) They were able to put together the capital themselves either for all or a down payment on the company.
2) They were able to convince investors they had the expertise to continue running the business profitably - investors either took debt or equity to cover the costs of the sale.
3) They convinced a bank or banks to finance the deal.
4) Facom financed the buy out.
5) Depending on the purchase price, any combination of the above.
What was the SK brand worth at the time of the buy out? My guess is between a couple hundred thousand to a few million dollars.
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neophyte
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I'm not sure. I presume they took the books to a bank or other financial company and borrowed the money.
Farmall450
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Took the books?
I was thinking a few of those but they seemed unlikely. 2 maybe.
10-4
And FACOM was bought by Stanley in 2005. I'd bet the tools aren't USA.
http://www.ultimategarage.com/hmfacom.html
neophyte
Well-known member
Took the books?
The management at SK would have had information on production numbers and costs, sales numbers, and information on past sales to distributors and retailers, all of which could be used to borrow money for a purchase. SK had also been a major tool manufacturer for decades manufacturing tools for Sears as well as the US government so even just the name would have had some value.
Stanley may have bought Facom in 2005, but there are still new old stock Facom items for sale from major retailers let alone minor retailers. When Stanley purchased the Facom, they screwed up the USA distribution for several years. One set of Facom wrenches I have has wrenches stamped France, and wrenches that don't have a COO on them which I presume my be Italian production. The warehouses probably have boxes of loose wrenches and sockets and they pull a box when they need to fill an order or put together sets, so not all the wrenches and sockets are going to be the exact same age.
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