Stanley Black & Decker Cutting in Texas and South Carolina, Adding in Tennessee

March 20, 2023

The tool-making giant will shed about 275 jobs with the moves, which are part of a $2 billion global cost-cutting plan.

Executives of Stanley Black & Decker Inc. have taken another step on their journey to streamline the company, saying they will close facilities in North Texas and South Carolina and move work being done at the latter to two plants in Tennessee.

Connecticut-based Stanley Black & Decker said March 20 the moves will result in the loss of about 180 South Carolina jobs that have been focused on making saws, tape measures and tool boxes as well as 175 layoffs in Texas, where workers had been making Craftsman-branded mechanics tools in Fort Worth.

Landing some of those positions—80 in all—are plants in Gallatin, northeast of Nashville, and Jackson, west of Tennessee’s capital. Combined, those outposts today employ about 770 people, roughly a third of the company’s worker base in the Volunteer State.

Stanley Black & Decker President and CEO Don Allan Jr. and his team have of late been working to trim $2 billion from the company’s cost base by 2025 and are targeting $1 billion in annualized savings this year. Closing down what interim CFO Corbin Walburger late last year called “a significant portion” of the company’s plants is part of that plan as are initiatives to streamline its supply chain and take out management layers. In the United States, Stanley Black & Decker runs more than 40 manufacturing facilities and employs nearly 19,000 people.

Shares of the company (Ticker: SWK) rose about 1% March 20 to $78.64. Over the past six months, they have fallen slightly, trimming the company’s market capitalization to about $12.4 billion.

About the Author

Geert De Lombaerde | Senior Editor

A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has been in business journalism since the mid-1990s and writes about public companies, markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications, focusing on IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal, T&D World and Healthcare Innovation. He also curates the twice-monthly Market Moves Strategy newsletter that showcases Endeavor stories on strategy, leadership and investment and contributes to other Market Moves newsletters.

With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati in 1997, initially covering retail and the courts before shifting to banking, insurance and investing. He later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal before being named editor of the Nashville Post in early 2008. He led a team that helped grow the Post's online traffic more than fivefold before joining Endeavor in September 2021.