Are Stanley Black & Decker’s cost cuts causing job losses in CT?
NEW BRITAIN — The latest stage of a cost-cutting program launched last year by toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker will result in the closing of two factories in southern states, but the initiative’s impact on the company’s workforce in Connecticut is unclear.
The New Britain-headquartered company announced this week that it would transfer operations from its plant in Cheraw, South Carolina, which focuses on knife production and portable storage, to facilities in the Tennessee cities of Gallatin and Jackson — changes that it said would “impact” 182 employees in South Carolina. At the same time, the shutdown of its plant in Fort Worth, Texas, which focuses on mechanics’ tools, would affect 175 employees. The company also said that it would add 80 jobs in Tennessee.
In response to an inquiry from Hearst Connecticut Media about whether Stanley had recently made or was planning any job cuts in Connecticut, a company spokesperson did not comment beyond referring to a news release about the factories in South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
“These actions are aligned to the transformation strategy designed to deliver $2 billion of cost savings and are reflective of current economic conditions which highlighted needed changes in Stanley Black & Decker’s production and distribution network,” the company said in the news release. “Strategic actions supporting the transformation will also enable a more focused product portfolio and strategic sourcing while delivering operational and service excellence.”
“The company is focused on providing a smooth transition to impacted employees, including options for employment at other Stanley Black & Decker facilities, as well as job placement support services,” the news release added.
Since the cost-reduction program was announced last July, there have been earlier rounds of job cuts. Last October, Chief Executive Officer and President Donald Allan Jr. said that “our head count reductions are largely complete.”
Also last October, Stanley refuted what it said was an “inaccurate” Wall Street Journal article that reported the company had cut about 1,000 finance positions. But the company has declined to specify the total number of job cuts since the cost-reduction program was implemented.
In Connecticut, Stanley has not sent any layoff notices to the state Department of Labor during the past year. But not all layoffs have to be reported under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart said she had not been informed by Stanley or anyone else of the company making any recent or upcoming job cuts in its home city.
“Stanley Black and Decker is a valued member of our business community here in New Britain. They hold an inordinate historical importance to the founding of our town,” Stewart said in a written statement. “Our first mayor was their founder, Frederick T. Stanley, and Stanley’s current executives have a great working relationship with the city.”
In downtown Hartford, the company recently closed a “manufactory” center that it opened in 2019.
“The company is aiming to be a more simplified organization, which will bring us closer to our customers,” the company said in a statement. “By integrating our two largest businesses, tools and outdoor, we are able to focus on our core franchise businesses where we have leading brands and the largest growth opportunities. With this change, decentralized centers of excellence (like the manufactory) are being brought into the businesses.”
The statement did not specify the jobs impact of the Hartford center’s closing, while the number of employees in Connecticut is also unclear. A page on the company’s website had shown in-state worker totals, including a tally of about 1,900 people on Tuesday. But the page was taken down on Wednesday, with the company spokesperson saying in an email the same day that the page was “outdated.” The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a follow-up inquiry about the company’s number of Connecticut-based employees.
Despite the closing of some facilities, Stanley remains one of the world’s largest manufacturers. It has more than 40 manufacturing facilities and nearly 19,000 employees in the U.S., according to company data. The company also said that during the past five years, its U.S. employee population has grown by more than 5,000 across its tools and outdoor business.
Based on its 2021 revenues, Stanley ranked No. 212 in the 2022 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations.
Any reduction to the company’s workforce in Connecticut would be a setback for the state’s manufacturing sector, which has recovered all of the jobs that it lost as a result of COVID-19 pandemic-sparked economic shutdowns in the spring of 2020.
But if the sector is to avoid repeating its stagnant jobs growth of the 2010s, it will need to tackle a different challenge: a lack of workers. While manufacturing employment in Connecticut in February grew 2% year over year to 158,600 positions, the sector still has thousands of job openings across the state.