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.
