Tool Company Directory?

[Ray McCullie]

Does anyone know of one? As in who makes or owns what brands?

Like B&D, DeWalt, PC and Delta are all the same company, vastly different quality. Or Skil and Bosch are from the same company. Or Ryobi and Rigid. Jet and Powermatic. I heard recently that Fein was or has been brought out by B&D as well.

[Bill Huber]

I don't but wish I did.

I thought of making one up but didn't get to far with the project.

[Dave MacArthur]

Actually I don't think it's accurate to say "xxx, yyy, zzz are all the same company". In most cases, these companies started out separate and built themselves up, then LATER got acquired. Just because a company is OWNED by another does not really mean it's the "same" company. Only when the gaining company closes down the purchased company and merely used the BRAND NAME for marketing is it accurate to call them the same.

In fact, quite often companies maintain completely separate production facilities, resource/supply pipelines, marketing relationships, etc. All the people who may have built the different companies up, worked the floor and manufacturing, usually come with the company, and different worker groups if kept separate can result in vastly different products.


It is a real over-simplification to merely track final/overall ownership and say, "THAT is the real company". Some guy in Phoenix owns a basketball team, a baseball team, and a football team say. He holds them all in an over-arching corporation, "WMH SportTeams"... does that mean they're really all one team? No, obviously not. They maybe employ a single accounting pipeline, a single pay company, maybe a single HR section. Maybe they share a single Marketing and Ticket Sales organization, maybe they use one charter/transportation service, maybe one legal staff, in fact maybe EVERYTHING has been consolidated for economies of scale and non-replication of effort EXCEPT the coaches and players... yet still, they are NOT one team creating one sneakily mis-labeled sports product.

Just a thought. In some cases maybe they DID close down everything and merely print a different brandname on 50% of the product off a line.

[Ray McCullie]

I agree with what you're saying. It's true in most cases just because a few brands are owned by the same company, they are not of the same quality.

But I've also worked in the production environment, products made for one brand and another and another on the same line. Same thing. Only thing that wasn't the same, QC standards. In this case glue. It was the same stuff but under the lower QC label it was half the price. Did it make a difference? Sometimes maybe setup time was a little slower or the label wasn't on perfectly straight but really, no it didn't.

I guess that would be the point, take Craftsman and Husky. Same thing. I'm not trying to say all this is bad because Black and Decker owns it. I'm saying; Where does it come from before it gets it's label applied? My Ryboi isn't a Rigid but it has the exact same laser system and that part of it is top notch.

[Dave MacArthur]

Yep, I'm interested in this too--just wanted to get my caveat out there;)
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WMH--Wilton, Jet, Powermatic.
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ACM--Bridgewood band saws, Laguna band saws, Felder.
Bridgewood Bandsaw Info? - Sawmill Creek (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5247)

16 posts - 8 authors - Last post: Dec 8, 2003
Bridgewood bandsaws are built in Italy by ACM. ACM also builds the bandsaws sold by Laguna and Felder. The saws from all three retailers are ...
www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5247
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EMERSON Electric
Emerson Electric owns Ridge Tool and the "Ridgid" brand name. Emerson also makes some (but not all) of the tools sold under the "Craftsman" brand. As pointed out in the Emerson news release, the new "Orange" Ridgid tool line is made under license by TekTronics International (TTI) which is based in Hongkong. TTI is the parent company of Ryobi and One World Technologies (OWT).OWT designs and manufactures the TTI brands according to TTI news release. Ryobi also makes some (but not all) of the power tools sold under the "Craftsman" name. To continue the "marriage", if you call Craftsman's service line, you will be talking to Ryobi Technical Support people.
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TTI (http://www.ttigroup.com/en/our_brands) Techtronic Industries Co.

Milwaukee
AEG
Ryobi
Stiletto
Homelite
Vacuums - Hoover, Dirt Devil and VAX

Black & Decker (http://www.blackanddecker.com/CustomerCenter/Company-Information.aspx)

Dewalt
Porter-Cable
Delta

Pentair, Inc (http://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.112np.d.htm#1stPage) as of 2004

Joinery Industrial


Robert Bosch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_GmbH) GmbH / LLC
Robert Bosch Tool Corporation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_GmbH#Consumer_goods_and_power_tools)

Bosch
Skil
Dremel
RotoZip
Vermont American
Gilmour

Walter Meier Holding owns/created
WMH Tool Group (http://www.wmhtoolgroup.com/About.aspx) which in turn owns

JET
POWERMATIC
PERFORMAX
WILTON


TTS Tooltechnic Systems (http://www.tooltechnicsystems.de/artikel/artikel_weiterleiten.cfm?id=306)

Festool
Protool
Schneider
Tanos


Illinois Tool Works (http://www.itw.com/itw/bu/construction_products)

Paslode
Ramset
Red Head
Buildex
- E-Z Ancor
- Tapcon
- Trugrip
- Teks
- Dec-King & Rock-On


Self Owned with out any subsidiaries

Makita
Hitachi (???)
Hilti (Thanks for this, ratherbefishin' (http://www.diychatroom.com/members/ratherbefishin--9881/))