Less than a year after the merger of Stanley and Black & Decker, Stanley Black & Decker signed an agreement to sell its Delta brand. The buyer is Chang Type Industrial Co., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of power tools sold under the Craftsman, DeWalt, Ryobi, and Black & Decker labels. The new company, Delta Power Equipment Corporation, will be based in Anderson, South Carolina – which is home to the U.S. branch of Techtronic Industries (TTI). The connection goes beyond a shared geography; Delta will be led by former TTI executives Bryan Whiffen (President) and Norm MacDonald (Vice President). Headquartered in Hong Kong, TTI owns Milwaukee, Ryobi, and Homelite, and has a licensing agreement to produce some of Emerson's Ridgid brand tools.
The Delta plant in Jackson, Tennessee will be closed and the production equipment moved to an existing building in Anderson. The Anderson facility is expected to bring 40 new jobs to the area and when fully operational will include manufacturing, R&D, engineering, sales, and administrative functions. In a press release issued last Tuesday, Whiffen said the Unisaw will continue to be produced in the U.S.A. No change was announced for those parts of the Delta product line currently made in Asia.
