SK Hand Tool's New Owner Commits to U.S.-Made Product ...

Sycamore, Ill.—At a time when many U.S. tool manufacturers have moved all or some of their production overseas, the revitalized SK Hand Tool Corp. is committed to its lineup of exclusively American-made tools, said Walt Sedlacek, SK’s director of sales and marketing.

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After nearly 90 years in business and a number of different owners over the years, the iconic SK Hand Tools declared bankruptcy in June 2010. Of five bidders, four were in Asia and were interested in purchasing only SK’s customer list and brand, and would have shifted production offshore. But a fifth company, IDEAL Industries, stepped in and has not only kept the company American-owned but has vowed to produce only American-made tools.

Before buying SK, IDEAL had bought two other American tool companies, Sedlacek said. IDEAL, a family-owned company best known for its product category-leading wire nuts used in electrical wiring, bought Western Forge, a Colorado Springs, Colo., manufacturer of forged tools for 32 national U.S. brands, and Pratt-Read, which makes screwdrivers for SK and other brands, he said.

SK’s factory buildings in Ohio and Chicago were not part of the sale, and by January 2011, the company was back to producing tools in its new 130,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Sycamore, Ill. and at Western Forge. The company now has nearly 3,000 products in its lineup and is continually revamping it through newer equipment and manufacturing processes, Sedlacek said.

“We’ve brought the majority of the tools back online that the old SK had,” Sedlacek said. “SK had its own forging operation, and another manufacturing operation in Chicago. When IDEAL bought the business, those two plants were older plants with maybe not the latest and greatest technology. So, they bought the assets of the business, but they built a brand-new state-of-the art manufacturing facility in Sycamore using all of the tooling from the old SK and they’re slowly upgrading it.”

One product improvement SK has made, Sedlacek said, is to its sockets, which are now manufactured to have a cleaner hole past the square part where the ratchet or extension attaches to it. The new socket has more strength because less material tears out during the five-step cold-forging process, which is done in Sycamore. That process is the ultimate in strength, Sedlacek said, which is important to be able to produce strong sockets with thin walls to enable easy access in tight spaces.

Tools such as pliers, ratchets, wrenches, punches, and chisels are hot-forged at the Western Forge plant, Sedlacek said, while final assembly on products such as ratchets is done in Sycamore, where the products are also all shipped to the same chrome-plater SK uses to achieve a “motorcycle-quality finish.” Called SuperKrome by the company, the high-polish, jewelry-like finish delivers maximum corrosion resistance, he said.“The tighter crystalline structure resists rust a lot better than traditional chrome,” Sedlacek said. “We do salt-spray accelerated testing with competitive products, and we get up to three times better rust resistance when using SuperKrome, as well as a shinier finish. We like to say it has the ‘bling’ of a Harley.”

The professional automotive technician is still SK’s target end-user, although industrial distribution is growing, too, he said. Because the company is committed to U.S.-made tools, there were a number of Asian-sourced tools within the old SK lineup that were dropped with IDEAL's ownership. The company is starting to add some of those tools to the lineup but in a superior American-made version, he said.

“We’re taking a look at where we differentiate,” he said. “We always want to be the best in class in terms of performance. The high end of the tool range is where SK wants to play. What new innovative tools can we come out with that will be best in class?”

One example of this is ratcheting wrenches, Sedlacek said. The old SK company had ratcheting wrenches, but they were made in China or Taiwan.

“So, we just developed a made-in-USA version which operates totally different than all of the existing ones. That will be the big launch this year,” he said, noting that the new product line is slated to roll out this summer.

The new product line underscores what IDEAL sees as a strategy for a sustainable competitive advantage, Sedlacek said.

“If you’re a company working with manufacturers in Asia, you can get decent quality,” he said. “But as a generalization, tools made in the U.S. are of higher quality. And every year, the cost of labor in China has inched up, the exchange rate goes up, and it’s more and more expensive to ship from Asia. In the next three to five years, the cost advantage of China is going to go away. We’re proud to be made in America, but we also feel the cost advantage of offshore manufacturing is not going to be there.

“Why not invest in U.S. manufacturing now? As other companies close factories and ship production overseas, why don’t we be the one who’s investing and buying those companies so that when manufacturing does come back to the U.S., we’re poised as the tool giant?”

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I came across a sponsored post by SK Tools on Facebook, which celebrates their 100 years of blood, sweat, and gears.

Here’s the caption that goes along with the image shown above, posted on June 7th, 2021:

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SK Tools manufactures quality tools for the American technician. From the original Round-Headed Ratchet to the SK X-FRAME® Ratcheting Wrench, we’ve been innovating for American professionals since day one.

Piling on top of many comments left in response to some of their other posts, SK Tools is facing a heap of harsh backlash right now.

First, there have been a lot of recent complaints about delays. Orders aren’t being shipped out fast enough for many of the vocal customers, and some are waiting on responses regarding warranty requests and other types of communications.

Here are some of the recent comments from SK Tools’ customers and fans:

Ryan: Taking a long time to process my order. TEKTON would have shipped my order by now.

Marcus: You people wasted no time in processing my credit card payment. If you can’t ship in a timely manner, please cancel my order so I can get the adapter I need elsewhere. I needed that piece days ago.

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Nino: Hey SK I’m not asking for a lot here but can you please please ship my order!

Tim: Numerous phone calls and emails. No reply. Double billed. Horrible horrible customer service.

Dillon: I understand that but you should have got caught up on all the orders from the past month. I been waiting patiently for 3 weeks. Tekton always ships same day or the next at the latest.

Emery: Disappointed in SK right now in your delivery service and can’t even get a reply from customer service.

Timothy: good. but why haven’t i got my wrench i ordered 3/4 months ago

We’re still in a pandemic, and I have experienced shipping and communications delays from a lot of brands and retailers, and so I’d cut SK some slack here. But I would also hope to have seen these concerns and complaints addressed by SK’s social media reps.

The second type of backlash has to do SK Hand Tool’s sale to GreatStar Tools, a subsidiary of China-based Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial.

Here’s SK’s post if you want to see it for yourself.

This one fan’s comment sums up what a lot of SK Tool fans are feeling:

100 years and then you sold yourself to China

But here’s the thing – Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial is a publicly-traded company. Which means YOU could own a piece of the company. I don’t quite see this as SK Hand Tools “selling out to China.”

There are actually quite a few tool brands and companies that are owned by public and privately owned companies based in China.

Personally, I think it’s too soon to make any predictions or worry about SK Tools’ direction.

Regardless as to where a publicly-traded company is headquartered, it’s the leadership and direction that matters.

Consider Milwaukee Tool, which has been constantly expanding their USA efforts and also directing money to grow their USA-based tool brand acquisitions. They are owned by a publicly traded company that’s based in China, but have also been pouring money into the US and supporting an increasing number of jobs across a breadth of categories. Milwaukee is set to open a new USA-based manufacturing facility in 2022, and this is on top of another new factory that is set to start making hand tools.

We’ve got to wait and see what happens, and judge SK and GreatStar on what they do – or don’t do – with the brand.

GreatStar has not yet released any details about their plans for SK Hand Tools. Based on their reticence surrounding other recent acquisitions, they probably won’t share much publicly here either, but SK is also a much higher profile tool brand.

SK has a lot of very passionate customers, and it’s important to remember that although we’re not privy to details, there are definitely reasons behind Ideal’s sale of the brand to GreatStar.

Ideal Industries shut down Western Forge in early 2020. Would anyone have wished the same to happen to SK?

Another thing to remember is that this isn’t something that SK Tools has done, these are changes being done to SK.

Part of me is holding onto optimism that GreatStar will support SK’s USA-based footprint and production efforts, but the other part is bracing for disappointment. We don’t know what the situation has been for the tool brand, but there are reasons why Ideal Industries closed Western Forge and was seeking to sell SK after 11 years of ownership.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

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