CT company Stanley Black & Decker cutting 1,000 jobs
Stanley Black & Decker has its headquarters in New Britain as one of Connecticut’s most recognizable, homegrown consumer brands. Profits plunged in the first six months of this year to $263 million, a drop of more than 70 percent as runaway inflation cut into demand for products at higher price points.
In late July, new CEO Don Allan Jr. revealed plans for $200 million in cost cuts to its corporate organization in the coming year, without stating immediately the impact on jobs. Allan was promoted to the top job with the retirement of long-time CEO Jim Loree.
“We’re really just taking out a lot of the complexity of our corporate organization,” Allan said during a July conference call. “We’re no longer a diversified industrial company. We are primarily a tools and outdoor company with an excellent industrial business alongside of it as well — makes us a very simpler company, and we can be more streamlined, more efficient and effective.”
Stanley Black & Decker entered the year with 71,300 employees across 110 locations, along with about 10,400 people employed as temporary contractors. At the start of the year about 8,000 people worked for a security products business that Stanley Black & Decker sold this summer for $3.2 billion to Securitas.
In addition to its namesake Stanley and Black+Decker brands, the company’s product lines include Craftsman, Cub Cadet, DeWalt and Troy-Bilt.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s anything unique that’s happening related to Stanley Black & Decker,” Allan said in July. “This is truly more of a market phenomenon that’s playing out — which makes sense, because a lot of the products that we’re providing there is some discretion associated with those products and certain buying decisions versus some of the other building products that are necessary to build a home.”
But Japan-based Makita and Hong Kong-based TTI was able to increase profits in the first half from a year earlier, with the latter reporting strong growth in sales of its Milwaukee brand of tools and lower momentum for its Ryobi line.
On an August conference call, Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said that homeowners continue to show enthusiasm for emerging products, singling out the Ego brand of battery-powered lawnmower which is now selling a riding version, and noted the increased savings for many homeowners that he thinks will offset some effects of inflation.
“We are obviously now looking at … pre-pandemic sale rates and understanding where we have reverted back by category to those pre-pandemic levels,” Ellison said in August. “We are closely monitoring any of our … tier-one holiday promotions, just to see how customers respond.”
Includes prior reporting by Paul Schott and Luther Turmelle.
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