The Positec Tool Corporation, or simply Positec, is a

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

company that specializes in the production 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 ...

and lawn and garden equipment. The company's corporate headquarters are located in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and the head of its

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n division is located in

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Positec is known for its production of the

Rockwell Tools Rockwell Tools is a line of power tools that is currently owned and distributed by Positec Tool Corporation, a China-based company with North American headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. The brand offers power tools and hand tools that ar ...

and

WORX Worx (styled WORX in the company's logo), is a line of lawn and garden equipment and power tools owned and distributed by the Positec Tool Corporation, a manufacturing company based in Suzhou, China, with North American headquarters in Charlo ...

brands which can be found in retailers like

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement re ...

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...

, and

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

History

The Positec Tool Corporation was founded by Don Gao in 1994 in Suzhou, China. The term "Positec" is a play on "Positive Technology." The company was initially started as an

original equipment manufacturer An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

of hand and power tools for established companies and brands like

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 ...

and

Black & Decker Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...

. In one of the company's early years, they shipped an order of 700,000

angle grinder An angle grinder, also known as a side grinder or disc grinder, is a handheld power tool used for grinding (abrasive cutting) and polishing. Although developed originally as tools for rigid abrasive discs, the availability of an interchangeable ...

s to Black & Decker. Later, Black & Decker would stop ordering from Positec to focus on manufacturing its own tools. After this, Gao began to steer the company toward becoming an independent manufacturer and seller of branded products. In 2004, the company released the WORX line of lawn and garden equipment. Gao hired Paolo Andriolo, a designer based in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, to design "ergonomic" products for Positec. The flagship product was an electronic lawn trimmer called the WORX GT. Around the time of the WORX release, Don Gao met Tom Duncan, a former executive at the Vermont American Tool Company (a joint venture between the

Emerson Electric Company Emerson Electric Co. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Ferguson, Missouri. The ''Fortune'' 500 company manufactures products and provides engineering services for industrial, commercial, and consumer markets.

and the Robert Bosch Tool Group). After quitting his job at Vermont American, Duncan acquired the rights to the " Rockwell" brand which hadn't been used for power tools since 1981. Gao and Duncan partnered up, with Duncan becoming the head of Positec's North American division in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2005. Positec initially struggled to find buyers for their products. Retailers liked the products Positec produced, but they wanted to use their own branding (instead of WORX or Rockwell). In order to bypass this restriction, Duncan (along with Vice President of Direct Response, Rhonda Tate) decided to engage in a

direct response marketing Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. By ...

campaign. The company ran its first

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

for the WORX GT in March 2007. By December 2007, the company had sold 313,000 units. The company had produced 10 long-form infomercials for the Rockwell Tools and WORX brands by 2012. Positec officially released the

line in 2007. Both Rockwell Tools and WORX products first appeared in a retailer in October 2009 at Lowe's. By 2012, their products could be found in other major retailers like The Home Depot, Walmart, and Costco. In order to accommodate increased sales, Positec USA moved its distribution center from

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Huntersville, North Carolina Huntersville is a large suburban town in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States. A part of the Charlotte metropolitan area, the population was 61,376 at the 2020 census, making Huntersville the 15th largest municipality in North Caroli ...

in 2012. By 2014, the company employed 4,000 people in 12 subsidiaries throughout the world. It also maintained facilities in numerous nations, including the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, China,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Products

Positec produces, distributes, and sells products under two major brand names: WORX and Rockwell Tools. WORX is a line of lawn and garden equipment that includes products like lawn trimmers,

lawn mowers A lawn mower (also known as a mower, grass cutter or lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the design of the mower, but g ...

chainsaws A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, ...

leaf blowers A leaf blower, commonly known as a blower, is a device that propels air out of a nozzle to move debris such as leaves and grass cuttings. Leaf blowers are powered by electric or gasoline motors. Gasoline models have traditionally been two-str ...

, yard carts, and accessories.

is a line of power tools and hand tools that consists of products like

circular saw A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Cir ...

drills A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driverchuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to i ...

s, and specialty tools like the oscillating SoniCrafter and the Jawhorse clamping device. More recently, Positec began manufacturing a limited line of light-duty lawn and garden tools for German discount retailer ALDI in the USA under their private brands Ferrex (which replaced the WorkZone label) and Gardenline. Positec also make WESCO, Bauker, Xceed and Blue Ridge brands.

Recognition and awards

In 2010, retailer Lowe's honored Positec with the Supplier of the Year Award. Lowe's also named Positec the "Innovator of the Year" among their 2,500 other suppliers. The company's WORX GT lawn trimmer also received an award from the U.S. Electronic Retailing Association in 2010. In 2011, Positec received awards from ''

DIY Week ''DIY Week'' is a British fortnightly business-to-business magazine for those in the do it yourself (DIY), household hardware and homeware market. The magazine is published by Datateam in Maidstone, Kent, in England. Founded in 1874, ''DIY Week' ...

'' for Product of the Year in the power tool and garden tools categories. In 2013, the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

presented Positec with the Platinum Low Carbon Award for its sustainable manufacturing facilities in China.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.positecgroup.com/ Manufacturing companies based in Suzhou Manufacturing companies established in 1994 Tool manufacturing companies of China Power tool manufacturers Chinese brands