The findings show the tool industry is mature and highly consolidated. Two companies: Stanley Black & Decker Inc. and Robert Bosch GmbH sit at the top of the tool industry controlling 26% of the global market. They have gained this much control by aggressively acquiring the best most trusted tool brands. It is surprising to find out who owns and who makes well-known brands like Milwaukee, Ridgid, DeWALT and Craftsman.

For most of us, it doesn't matter who owns which brand. What matters is who makes which brands. Many of these companies don't have their own factories, or share factory time with others. There's a reason Ridgid and Ryobi parts are almost universally interchangeable despite being owned by different companies.

Rigid is owned by Emerson, but Emerson licenses out the name to TTI (owners of Milwaukee and Ryobi) to make Powertools.

TTI manufactures some of Ridgid's products, namely their cordless tools, but the brand name is owned by Emerson.

Regarding Milwaukee tools.. They are hardly considered a part of TTI. Milwaukee does everything in its power to differentiate from the TTI brands and frankly seems like they do not want anything to do with TTI, except they do not want to hire a salesperson to work the aisles at big home improvement stores.

Now let’s answer the 10 most asked questions about tool brands:

1. Who makes Ryobi tools? Techtronic Industries (TTi) is the OEM for Ryobi. TTi owns the Ryobi brand of power tools in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. They are sold exclusively at The Home Depot in United States. Ryobi Limited, which sold the power tools businesses to TTi in 2000/2001, is a Japanese company that sells power tools, die castings, hardware and printing equipment in Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa
2. Who makes Kobalt tools? Chervon the Chinese OEM (not Chevron the oil company) makes many of Kobalt’s power tools. In 2016, Lowe’s awarded them a vendor award in innovation for the Kobalt 24-Volt cordless power tools. Sunrise Global/Greenworks Tools is the OEM for Lowe’s Kobalt cordless 80-volt outdoor power equipment (they were awarded 2015 innovation award).
3. What happened to Danaher the tool maker? Danaher spun out their tool and power tool brands and OEM capability to a company called Fortive Corp. in 2016. Danaher tools are now Fortive, essentially. Fortive operates out of the Fluke HQ just north of the Boeing Everett Factory.
4. Where are Milwaukee tools made and who owns Milwaukee brand? Dongguan, China. In Aug-2004, TTi Group acquired two divisions (Milwaukee Electric Tools and AEG Power Tools brands) of Atlas Copco’s Industrial Technique business for a total sum of $627 million ($797 million in 2016 dollars). By 2004, all of Milwaukee’s tool production facilities had left Wisconsin for Mississippi. And in 2008, when TTi opened their massive Dongguan facility, the move for Milwaukee Electric Tools from U.S.A. to China was complete.
5. Who makes Snap-on tools? Snap-on makes Snap-on tools. Snap-on is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and they make tools in their vast production facilities.
6. Who makes Ridgid tools and who owns the brand? TTi Group makes Ridgid brand tools through a partner agreement with Emerson and their OEM subsidiary One World Technologies. They first entered into an agreement in 2003 for TTi to make Ridgid woodworking power tools (and have since furthered the partnership to other tool categories). Ridgid has been a subsidiary of Emerson Electric since 1966. The brand is targeted at plumbers and heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) trades.
7. When did Stanley and Black & Decker merge? Officially, Stanley Works acquired Black & Decker for an all stock deal worth $4.5 Billion ($3.5B stock and $1B debt), which was announced in Nov-2009. The “merge” was finalized in Mar-2010. At the time Stanley Works owned the popular brands Stanley, Facom, Bostitch, Proto, Mac Tools, Vidmar (and others) and Black & Decker owned Black & Decker, DeWalt, Porter-Cable, Baldwin, Emhart, Kwikset, Price Pfister (and others). The combination of the two created a tool and equipment powerhouse valued at nearly $10B.
8. Who makes Husky tools? Husky is a home brand of Home Depot. The tools are made by various OEMs including Stanley Black & Decker, Western Forge and Apex Tool Group.
9. Who owns DeWalt tools brand? DeWALT is owned and made by Stanley Black & Decker. Black & Decker owned DeWALT since 1960. In 2010, when Stanley Works and Black & Decker merged the new company, Stanley Black & Decker, became the owner of DeWALT.
10. Who makes and owns Craftsman tools? Craftsman tools are made in factories around the world. Depending on the tool category, it could be made in USA, Mexico, India, Honduras, Japan, Taiwan, China, Germany or France. Many manufacturing companies have been contracted to make different tools for Craftsman over the years. These include: TTi Group, Stanley, Apex Tool Group, Western Forge, Easco, Danaher and Pratt-Read. Sears, the creator of the Craftsman brand, never made Craftsman tools – they owned the brand. In 2016, Sears sold the brand to Stanley Black & Decker for $900 million. With the sale, it is more than likely all manufacturing of Craftsman Tools moving forward will be done in Stanley Black & Decker manufacturing plants.