Stanley Black & Decker buys Craftsman

[Parrothead]

Well...Stanley bought Craftsman, not sure how I feel about that. Probably not good, but we'll see.

https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN14P1FI

 

[Duker]

Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

Apologies if this has already been posted but I thought some folks might like to know. I am not confident of the resurrection of the Brand quality but hopefully it has stopped the death spiral.



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[Buckgnarly]

Sad for Sears, hopeful for the Craftsman name, sooooo glad I sold off my cordless Cman stuff last month to switch over to Milwaukee!

 

[KnurledNut]

Stanley has a lot of potential.
This could be a good move.

 

[Moparman390]

For all those allergic to non US made tools:

"To accommodate the future growth of Craftsman, we intend to expand our manufacturing footprint in the U.S. This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40% in the past three years."

-James Loree, Stanley Black& Decker CEO

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-sears-sells-craftsman-stanley-20170105-story.html

 

[Sco Deac]

Looks like a $900 MM cash deal. That is well under the reported asking price. I wonder what the terms of the current Craftsman manufacturing deals look like. How long will Stanley B&D have to pay some of their competitors to continue manufacturing certain lines?

This is probably a positive development for the Craftsman line continuing to be widely distributed for years to come. I like it better than a retailer buying it to be their house brand.

 

[KnurledNut]

Courtesy of Bloomberg...

Sears to Sell Craftsman Brand to Stanley for $900 Million
by Rick Clough

January 5, 2017, 7:44 AM EST January 5, 2017, 8:03 AM EST

Sears Holdings Corp. agreed to sell its Craftsman line to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. for about $900 million in a deal that broadens sales of the tool brand beyond the retail chain.

Stanley will pay $525 million at closing, $250 million after three years, and make annual payments on new Craftsman sales for 15 years, the companies said in a statement Thursday. Sears will continue to sell Craftsman products at its stores. The license to Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears will be royalty-free for 15 years, and then generate 3 percent afterward.

Only about 10 percent of Craftsman-branded products are sold outside Sears today and the agreement allows Stanley to significantly increase Craftsman sales in these untapped channels, New Britain, Connecticut-based Stanley said.

“To accommodate the future growth of Craftsman, we intend to expand our manufacturing footprint in the U.S.,” Stanley Chief Executive Officer James M. Loree said in the statement. “This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40 percent in the past three years.” The deal comes about three months after Stanley agreed to buy Newell Brands Inc.’s tools business for $1.95 billion.
Sears shares rose 3.5 percent to $10.72 at 7:54 a.m. in New York premarket trading. Stanley was little changed.

“We will continue to take actions to adjust our capital structure, meet our financial obligations and manage our business to better position Sears Holdings to create long-term value by focusing on our best members, our best stores and our best categories,” Sears CEO Edward S. Lampert said in the statement.

 

[SHOCheapRacing]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ftsman-brand-from-sears-for-about-900-million


found a story.....

They got 900 million, I think it was expected to possible sell for 2 billion.

 

[Danglerb]

Bad for Sears, maybe good for the Craftsman brand depending on where Stanley decides to position it. If it becomes their premium brand, great.

Other than cash I see nothing but downside for Sears as Craftsman will be sold full line most likely via almost any retailer.

For me it means keep an eye out for closeout deals as old product in the chain gets dumped.

 

[EOC_Jason]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

Read the news clip... I think Sears is being a little optimistic that they will still be around 15 years from now... LOL...

 

[Dirtydan69]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

Just announced they are closing 150 stores. Most in small out of the way towns I believe.

 

[byoungblood]

I think that Sears is overly optimistic about getting payments for the brand for 15 years. I've made two purchases from them for less than $100 in the last two years. Last time I went into a company store it was near empty, and it is a "mall" location (the mall is all but dead). Simple truth is nobody cares about Sears anymore.

I guess this may be a good sign because it means that some Craftsman tools may return to being decent quality again (I'd assume that production of some things may go to the same factories as Blackhawk/Proto once contracts run out) but they could also take the brand down the road of Black and Decker. We will have to see...

 

[toored]

Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley for about $900 million

Parallel thread: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349322

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-sears-sells-craftsman-stanley-20170105-story.html

Stanley Black & Decker agreed to purchase the Craftsman tool brand from Sears Holdings Corp. for about $900 million.

Stanley will pay $525 million at closing, $250 million after three years, and make annual payments on new Craftsman sales for 15 years, the companies said in a statement Thursday.

"Craftsman is a legendary, American brand with tremendous consumer awareness built on a legacy of producing quality products at a great value," said James Loree, Stanley Black& Decker's president and CEO, in a statement. "To accommodate the future growth of Craftsman, we intend to expand our manufacturing footprint in the U.S. This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40% in the past three years."

"This transaction represents a significant step in our ongoing transformation to a membership focused business model," said Sears CEO Eddie Lampert, whose investment firm has lent the retailer more than $1 billion in efforts to keep it afloat.

 

[gungatim]

whew...they also announced this morning my local Sears is closing in a few months. not really a surprise but would mean no more returning tools...hopefully Stanley brings back some of the ratchet/socket quality and gets some decent distribution. the Ace hardware craftsman selection was a joke...

 

[PelicanPines]

Re: Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley for about $900 million

Well Stanley doesn't exactly bring a hope of improving the poor quality we have come to experience with the current Craftsman production.

Wonder where Craftsman tools will be sold now. Stanley is available in Walmart... perhaps we will have an aisle of Craftsman there too.

 

[nh_yota]

Will they honor the warranty?

 

[bobcatdan]

Re: Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley for about $900 million

It will be interesting to see where this goes. Stanley runs the full gambit of quailty from the imported Stanley line to their flagship brands mac and proto.

 

[maxpower_hd]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

I was in our local Sears recently while XMas shopping after a major renovation. I have to say they now have almost nothing I am interested in unfortunately. I used to like the store but now it just plain *****. The store is literally half the size it used to be having eliminated their top floor and turned it into a Primark(sp?) which sells nothing I need or want. And they also eliminated a lot of the options for items I might want to save space. So now they are basically a K-Mart. They might have one of a particular product but not THE one you want. I agree. I can't see them still being around in 15 years unless they change something.

 

[kctyphoon]

Re: Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley for about $900 million

Wouldn't surprise me at all if you'd find the craftsman tool line for sale in Lowe's.. figured Lowe's would buy it - that just seemed to make sense. I can still see Kobalt getting pushed aside, but don't see this happening to husky at hd.. sad to see any of it happen..

 

[jallyn]

Wow, much sooner than I thought and for more money than I would have guessed. I wonder who the competition was?...

 

[byoungblood]

Will they honor the warranty?

I would guess that it depends on the terms of the sale.

The "Satisfaction" warranty is primarily a trademark of Sears. I know it carried over to the fine print of the Craftsman hand tool warranty as well, but since Sears isn't going to be driving the ship anymore, so to speak, the warranty may still exist, but to get other retailers to pick up the brand the no questions asked aspect may go away. So showing up with a bucket of rusty sockets and wrenches and coming away with a new set of tools probably won't fly anymore.

 

[nh_yota]

Wow, much sooner than I thought and for more money than I would have guessed. I wonder who the competition was?...

Probably Apex

 

[kctyphoon]

Will they honor the warranty?

Why wouldn't they... They didn't buy the brand to demolish it.

 

[EOC_Jason]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

They really need to ditch being anchor stores for malls... 95% of mall traffic is just teens buying clothes and junk...

If Sears had more stand-alone stores like the Sears Hardware or Hometown stores I think they would do better...

I think it's really just inevitable that Sears will be another memory like Montgomery Ward the way the top brass isn't doing anything to change the company except close stores and liquidate assets...

 

[6MocoA]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

I expect the posting activity this news will generate will melt GJ's servers for a day or two or weeks.

 

[Duker]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

Got a link?

Sorry was on another conference call. I see someone has already posted a link to the news. I was on a call with the company and they talked about expanding production of some series of tools here in the US ( referring to the impact of our new President) but they were pretty vague other than some opportunities in military contracts etc. I think the opportunity is there to firm up the brand but it really seemed to be more of an acquisition to keep them from having to cut margins. Just one equity analyst's view but then again I am GJ tool junkie so my perspective is skewed.


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[rct]

Stanley Black and Decker already owns Proto and MAC brands for premium tools. I suspect Craftsman will be focused on the mass-market consumer. My guess would be they would try to expand into Autopart and Home improvement store sales as well for that brand. The big question is what will be the budget line - Stanley or Craftsman and will the quality go up, down or stay the same?
http://www.stanleyblackanddecker.com/products-services/tools-storage

 

[frank_c]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

This part is good

“To accommodate the future growth of Craftsman, we intend to expand our manufacturing footprint in the U.S.,” Stanley CEO James M. Loree said in the statement. “This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40 percent in the past three years.”

 

[6MocoA]

So then how does Sears survive as a brick and mortar entity? Is this the end of Sears for good?

 

[cla4jc]

Black and Decker is buying Craftsman

So black and decker is buying the craftman tool line. What are everyone's thoughts? Do you think they will honor the warranties? I guess they can't make them worse

 

[The Cobbler]

Re: Black and Decker is buying Craftsman

there's already 2 threads on this topic

 

[derosa]

Re: Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley for about $900 million

Looks like the warranty and quality will remain at what we've come to expect from craftsman. Now there might just be more places to go and complain about the cheap chinese replacement for a 30 year old worn out lower quality US made piece.

 

[Super Sport]

Stanley Black and Decker already owns Proto and MAC brands for premium tools. I suspect Craftsman will be focused on the mass-market consumer. My guess would be they would try to expand into Autopart and Home improvement store sales as well for that brand. The big question is what will be the budget line - Stanley or Craftsman and will the quality go up, down or stay the same?
http://www.stanleyblackanddecker.com/products-services/tools-storage

I wouldn't be surprised if the Craftsman and Stanley brands are the same tools but sold in different marketplaces. I doubt they will move the brand upmarket and keep the warranty, as that would drive up costs.

So then how does Sears survive as a brick and mortar entity? Is this the end of Sears for good?

I'm betting, as a B&M store, they will cease to exist in the next 5 years. I think Sears will continue to exist as an online presence for some time, but I can't really see that lasting long term as they don't really offer any benefits over Amazon or other online retailers. Maybe if they sold off their real estate and reinvested it into their product line and website they could become competitive there, but it may be too late to change consumers' opinions and buying styles.

 

[Loscaldazar]

Re: Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley for about $900 million

Probably going to replace Blackhawk tools, as I've been saying all along. Doubt it will replace/compete with Proto or Mac. Blackhawk has little to no name recognition (probably the least well known tool brand sold by SBD), and craftsman has a ton.

Also, the quote you provided seems to state that a fair amount, if not all, will be made in the USA. Interesting....

 

[gdocktor3]

For all those allergic to non US made tools:

"To accommodate the future growth of Craftsman, we intend to expand our manufacturing footprint in the U.S. This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40% in the past three years."

-James Loree, Stanley Black& Decker CEO

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-sears-sells-craftsman-stanley-20170105-story.html

I'm/we're not going to get into it, but I wonder if Trump had anything to do with this decision. I think this is a good move by Stanley and in a sense, it's only right for them to buy the brand.

 

[franzdom]

Re: Sears sells Craftsman brand to Stanley for about $900 million

Most excellent!

 

[franzdom]

Re: Sears selling Craftsman to Stanley

Is there anything tangible in the sale, or is it just the name?

 

[Tonellin]

Originally Posted by Moparman390 View Post
For all those allergic to non US made tools:

"To accommodate the future growth of Craftsman, we intend to expand our manufacturing footprint in the U.S. This will add jobs in the U.S., where we have increased our manufacturing headcount by 40% in the past three years."

-James Loree, Stanley Black& Decker CEO

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...105-story.html

I'm/we're not going to get into it, but I wonder if Trump had anything to do with this decision. I think this is a good move by Stanley and in a sense, it's only right for them to buy the brand.

Most likely not

 

[Danglerb]

Re: Black and Decker is buying Craftsman

So far, the day is young.

 

[thaxboyd]

Craftsmen going to Black and Decker?

Heard it on the radio this morning... Hope they don't screw it up and turn into cheap Harbor Freight type stuff.

(after hitting the "Post" button I realized I spelled Craftsman wrong)