Why does Kawasaki license its name for tools?

[PugetDude]

Same reason Harley does: Sooner or later you're going to end up walking...

 

[mjs3350]

I don't use it much these days, but my first impact wrench was a 1/2" electric impact branded Kawasaki. It's big and loud but I was happy for the 60 or so bucks it cost me.

 

[6PTsocket]

Kawasaki is a huge corporation, with over ¥1 trillion in revenue, and close to 35,000 employees.

In the US it seems common for corporations to come up with separate brand names for different divisions and product lines, but Japanese corporations son’t always seem to do this, and there’s also the issue that it’s not always clear whether a branded product line is part of the major corporation, or whether a different company that just happens to have the same name as the giant corporation is producing the product.
This is sort of like Mitsubishi Pencil Company, and their Mitsubishi, Uni, and Uni-ball pencils and pens, which are well regarded, but which have nothing to do with the Major Mitsubishi Corporation or any of their divisions.

Years ago, there were actually Kawasaki branded cordless drill chucks, and as far as I know, the drill chucks had nothing to do with the Kawasaki Corporation. The chucks just seem to have been patented by a Kiyoshi Kawasaki.

As far as the tool line, maybe some executive at Kawasaki had the idea to get into the tool business, following the success of Hitachi, Makita, and Ryobi in the power tool markets, particularly in the USA.
The Kawasaki branding probably isn’t a bad idea for areas were the motorcycles are popular since people who like the bikes or work on them might need tools.
Hitachi and Ryobi both are involved with Industrial manufacturing other than power tools, and while the Ryobi brand outside Japan has been leased to Techtronic Industries, the parent company of Milwaukee, in Japan, Ryobi still manufactures their own power tool line.

Not as of very recently. Ryobi just unloaded their tool factory in China and they are out of the power tool business. They will no longer manufacture them for the Asian market, which they did not sell to TTI. They will concentrate instead on their other products.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[6PTsocket]

Everybody does it from dress designers to tool manufacturers, to appliance companies to gun companies.They license the name to somebody else to make specific products. Apparantly it does not hurt their image and makes them money off the license fees. It is so widespread and going on for a very long time. The effect is probablly the reverse. The licensee can sell even low quality stuff based on the reputation of the brand name. I remember reading a clothing designer had so many licensees that he had not even seen some of the products bearing his name.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[TalonFE]

I have a Kawasaki Heavy Industries 1/2 inch drive electric impact unit that is really the business. Operating it requires a certain level of commitment and courage when you pull the trigger on that bad boy. I think it may a smaller version of the rigs they use to snug down the propeller nuts on the big boats they build. It repays inattention with sharp pain.