“TTI bought Milwaukee and basically let it run itself. Kept the R&D operation in Brookfield, WI. Kept the engineering team intact. Dumped $206 million into R&D in a single year. More than 4.4% of total sales going straight back into product development, every year.
The results showed up fast. M12 and M18 launched within two years of the acquisition. Then FUEL brushless motors. Then ONE-KEY, the first digital platform for tools and equipment that lets you track inventory, customize torque settings, and lock a tool remotely if it gets stolen. Then PACKOUT modular storage, which turned a plastic box into an ecosystem. Then MX FUEL, pushing cordless into concrete saws and breakers that used to require a gas engine or a generator.”
…
“Stanley Black & Decker took the opposite approach.
The 2010 merger of Stanley Works and Black & Decker created a company that already owned DeWalt. From there they went on an acquisition spree that should have built an empire. Instead it built a bloated holding company drowning in debt and leadership turnover.
They bought so many brands they were competing with themselves on the same store shelves, then starved the weaker ones to feed DeWalt.
The tools division has been a revolving door at the top. After the previous head left, two executives served as acting co-presidents before Chris Nelson was brought in from Carrier Corporation in June 2023. Nelson had zero tool industry background. He'd been running an HVAC division. Before that, McKinsey and Johnson & Johnson.
The CEO who hired him didn't last much longer. Donald Allan Jr. stepped aside in October 2025 after three years in the role, leaving behind a stock price that had dropped roughly 50% from its 2021 peak. Three years, two billion dollars in cost cuts, 7,000 jobs eliminated, and the guy who ordered all of it still couldn't make the numbers work.
The cost-cutting has been relentless. SBD launched a $2 billion "cost reduction and operational simplification" program. Since late 2023, they've cut roughly 7,000 employees globally. Closed plants in South Carolina and Texas. Sold off their aerospace fastener business to Howmet for $1.8 billion in cash. The total workforce dropped from about 48,500 to 43,500 in a single year. Annual filings show $141 million in restructuring charges in 2022 and another $39 million in 2023.”