Stanley Black & Decker plans Texas hand-tools plant

Rendering | Contributed A rendering of Stanley Black & Decker's planned 425,000-square-foot plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

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By Gregory Seay

New Britain toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker says it will build a Texas factory that showcases some of its new manufacturing technologies and processes being devised in Hartford to more efficiently produce its Craftsman line of mechanics’ tools.

Stanley CEO Jim Loree announced Wednesday ground will break this summer for the 425,000-square-foot plant in Fort Worth, Texas, due to open in late 2020, producing sockets, ratchets and wrenches, among other tools.

The new plant, Craftsman’s first in years, will employ about 500 full-time workers. The company did not say what it will cost.

Stanley purchased the Craftsman brand from Sears Holdings Corp. in 2017.

The plant, which Loree says will use pre-flattened steel to improve material yield, as well as water and energy management technologies to reduce resource consumption, is part of Craftsman’s re-branding that Stanley introduced last August.

Loree said more than 1,200 new Craftsman products have been introduced since then, putting the brand on path to hit $1 billion in incremental revenues by 2021.

The Fort Worth plant will join nearly three dozen manufacturing facilities Stanley operates worldwide.

In April, Stanley opened its 23,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence, or "Manufactory 4.0", in downtown Hartford’s One Constitution Plaza.

There, a team of 50 or so engineers and technologists are devising digital technologies and production processes Stanley can deploy to enhance production efficiencies in its facilities.