Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of

power tools A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labor used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed air ...

, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in

Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorpo ...

, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was originally established in 1910. On March 12, 2010, Black & Decker merged with

Stanley Works Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware and provider of security products. Headquartered in the greater Hartford city of New Britain, ...

to become

Stanley Black & Decker Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware and provider of security products. Headquartered in the greater Hartford city of New Britain, ...

. It remains as a wholly owned subsidiary of that company.

History

1910-1974

*1910 – "The Black & Decker Manufacturing Company" was founded by S. Duncan Black (1883–1951) and Alonzo G. Decker (1884–1956), as a small

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop (UK) is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tools to make parts, usually of metal or plast ...

in Baltimore in September. Decker, who had only a seventh grade education, had met Black in 1906, when they were both 23-year-old workers at the Rowland Telegraph Company. With only $1,200 between them, one of their first jobs was designing machinery for making milk bottle caps and candy dipping. *1912 – The Black and Decker "

Hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexa ...

" logo symbol was introduced, symbolizing the head of a hexagonal bolt found in machine shops. It was used in one form or another from 1912 to 2014. *1917 – Black & Decker invented and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

ed the hand-held electric drill with a pistol grip and trigger switch. ** –– For many decades the director of design was Glenn Calvin Wilhide, a friend of

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...

and other industrial designers of the day. Wilhide filed many US patents for Black & Decker. *1917 – The first factory was opened in

. *1919 – Company reaches $1,000,000 in sales. *1928 – Acquired Van Dorn Electric Tool Company of

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. *1936 – Common stock begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange. *1941 August – Wilhide's patent for a portable power driven tool unit granted. *1943 – Received the

Army-Navy "E" Award The Army-Navy "E" Award was an honor presented to companies during World War II whose production facilities achieved "Excellence in Production" ("E") of war equipment. The award was also known as the Army-Navy Production Award. The award was cr ...

for production, one of four

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(1939/1941-1945) citations awarded to the company. *1949 – First Black & Decker U.S. trademark awarded. *1951 – Alonzo G. Decker, Sr. becomes president *1960 – Acquired

DeWalt DeWalt Industrial Tool Company (stylized as DᴇWALT) is an American worldwide manufacturer of power tools and hand tools for the construction, manufacturing and woodworking industries, as well as home craftspeople. DeWalt is a registered trad ...

from

American Machine and Foundry American Machine and Foundry (known after 1970 as AMF, Inc.) was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors, and yachts. The company was founde ...

1975-2008

*1975 – Francis P. Lucier succeeded son of one of the founders Alonzo G. Decker, Jr.(1908-2002), as chairman of the board, the first time a family member did not hold the post. *1984 – Acquired small-appliance business from

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

. *1986 – Nolan D. Archibald is named chief executive officer. *1989 – Acquired Emhart Corporation which includes the brand names

Kwikset Kwikset is an American lock and lockset manufacturer owned by Spectrum Brands Hardware and Home Improvement Group (HHI), a Division of Spectrum Brands, and is in the process of being acquired by Assa Abloy. Originally Gateway Manufacturing Company, ...

Price Pfister Pfister, formerly called Price Pfister until 2010, is a manufacturer of bathroom and lavatory faucets, shower systems, showerheads, and accessories and kitchen faucets and other plumbing fixtures. Emil Price and William Pfister founded the comp ...

faucets, Molly wall anchors, POP rivets, True Temper (both hardware and sports equipment) and other consumer and commercial products. Inducted into the

Space Foundation The Space Foundation is an American nonprofit organization whose mission is to advocate for all sectors of the global space industry through space awareness activities, educational programs, and major industry events. It was founded in 1983. Loca ...

's Space Technology Hall of Fame for its cordless power tool achievements and contributions to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Gemini Gemini may refer to: Space * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac ** Gemini in Chinese astronomy * Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program * Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Northern ...

and

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

programs. *1990 – True Temper hardware is sold to

Huffy The Huffy Corporation is a supplier of bicycles with headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Early history It has its roots in 1887 when George P. Huffman purchased the Davis Sewing Machine Company and in 1890 moved its sewing machine f ...

, and then sold to US Industries (owner of Ames) which later became

Ames True Temper Ames True Temper is a multinational corporation headquartered in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Griffon Corporation. Ames True Temper specializes in the manufacture of non-powered lawn and garden products. The ...

, which is now owned by

Griffon Corporation Griffon Corporation is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in New York City. The company conducts its operations through five subsidiaries: The AMES Companies, ClosetMaid, Clopay Building Products, CornellCookson, and Telephonics Cor ...

. *1996 – Sold small-appliance business to Windmere Durable Holdings. *2000 – Alonzo G. Decker, Jr. resigns from the board, at age 92, two years before his death.

2009-present

*2010 – Black & Decker merges with Stanley Works to become Stanley Black & Decker. *2014 – Rebranded from Black & Decker to Black+Decker *2017 – Stanley Black & Decker purchases Craftsman from

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

(Sears, Roebuck & Company). *2017 – Stovekraft entered a licensing agreement with Black+Decker to sell the latter's products in the Indian market.

Portfolio

Recent

As of 2017 Q4,

's brand portfolio included: * STANLEY (formerly known as ''The Stanley Works'', started as ''Stanley's Bolt Manufactory'', founded by

Frederick Trent Stanley Frederick Trent Stanley (August 12, 1802 – August 2, 1883) was an American industrialist born in New Britain, Connecticut. Early life, family and education Frederick Stanley had at least one brother, William. Career After his schooling, Stanl ...

in 1843, and merging with the Stanley Rule and Level Company founded by Henry Stanley)

Retired

* Baldwin (sold to

Spectrum Brands Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. is an American diversified company. Headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin, it was established in 2005 as the successor company to Rayovac Corporation. It is one of the Fortune 500 companies, and among the largest of ...

) *

Delta Machinery Delta Power Equipment Corp. designs, manufactures and distributes power woodworking tools under the Delta Machinery brand. History Delta traces its roots to the Delta Specialty Company founded by Herbert Tautz in 1919 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bas ...

(sold to Chang Type Industrial) * DeVilbiss Air Power (sold to MAT Holdings) *

(sold to Spectrum Brands) *

(sold to Spectrum Brands) * Weiser Lock (sold to Spectrum Brands)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Black and Decker Companies based in Baltimore County, Maryland Home improvement companies Manufacturing companies based in Maryland Manufacturing companies established in 1910 Power tool manufacturers Towson, Maryland American companies established in 1910 1910 establishments in Maryland 2010 mergers and acquisitions Tool manufacturing companies of the United States