Toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker increased prices in April in response to new tariffs, and it plans to raise them again in the summer.
The New Britain-headquartered company disclosed the price hikes in the first-quarter earnings report released Wednesday. The high-single-digit percentage price increase implemented this month affected the U.S. tools and outdoor business, which includes brands such as Black & Decker, Craftsman, DeWalt and Stanley.
Stanley Black & Decker officials have repeatedly said in the past few months that they have been expecting President Donald Trump’s administration to impose new tariffs. But the price hikes, along with supply-chain changes that include an ongoing pullback in China, illustrate that the company will still acutely feel the new levies.
“The speed and magnitude of the changes based on trade policy makes pricing something that we have to do out of the gate,” Christopher Nelson, Stanley Black & Decker's chief operating officer, said during an earnings call Wednesday morning.
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Stanley Black & Decker plans to raise prices again in July, but company officials indicated they have not finalized the amount.
“We don't have the actual price increase for Q3 ... because we're still working through that with our customers,” Nelson said. “There is no price increase that we’ve arrived at right now... It’s likely higher than the first price increase we went out with.”
Among the new tariffs that Stanley faces is the massive 145% levy that Trump has slapped on imports from China. The world's second-most-populous country accounts for about 15% of the supply chain for Stanley’s U.S. business.
“While the magnitude and frequency of these changes has exceeded our expectations, we have been and remain prepared to address this dynamic trade environment,” Donald Allan Jr., Stanley’s CEO and president, said on the earnings call.
Among supply-chain adjustments, Stanley is aiming on “effectively being out of China supply for the U.S. business,” in the next one to two years, Nelson said. Stanley has already reduced its reliance on Chinese manufacturing through changes in recent years such as the reported closing in 2020 of its factory in Shenzhen, a city that borders Hong Kong.
“We believe we have the most flexible supply-chain footprint in the industry, as we now have significant hubs in the U.S., Mexico and southeast Asia that serve the U.S. market,” Allan said. “As we navigate these shifts in trade policy, we are starting from a strong position due to these existing hubs. We intend to build upon them to minimize the impact of higher input costs from tariffs over the next 12 to 24 months.”
But a reduced reliance on China’s manufacturing will not necessarily lead to a significant production increase in the U.S., where 33% of Stanley's approximately 48,500 employees were based at the end of 2024. During the company’s third-quarter 2024 earnings call on Oct. 29, Allan said that it was “unlikely that we're moving a lot back to the U.S., because it's just not cost-effective to do. And there's questions about whether we even have the labor to actually do that in this country.”
Among recent changes in Mexico, the company reportedly closed last year a plant in Hermosillo, in the state of Sonora in the country’s north. The facility had grappled with weak demand since its opening in 2022, according to El Sol de Hermosillo.
Stanley officials also confirmed Wednesday that the company is on track to complete its cost-cutting plan. Implemented in 2022, the undertaking aims to save $2 billion by the end of this year. Changes in the past couple of years have included the closing of several facilities in South Carolina and Texas that have resulted in several hundred layoffs.
Stanley officials have repeatedly declined to comment on whether the company has made any layoffs in Connecticut in the past couple of years. The company had 600 employees in New Britain in 2024 and the same number in 2023, according to the City of New Britain’s two most-recent annual financial reports.
The cost-cutting plan helped the company to produce a first-quarter profit of about $90 million, compared with around $20 million in the first quarter of 2024.
Stanley's first-quarter sales totaled about $3.74 billion, down 3% year-over-year.
Based on its 2023 revenues, Stanley ranked No. 263 on the 2024 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations.
Amid the tariff headwinds, which contributed to a 0.3% decrease in U.S. gross domestic product in the first quarter, Stanley has had a tough time recently in the stock market. Its shares were trading at about $59 at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, down 4% from their closing total on Tuesday and down 26% year to date.
April 30, 2025|Updated April 30, 2025 4:04 p.m.
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Paul Schott is a business reporter with Hearst Connecticut Media Group, writing about the issues affecting small- and medium-sized businesses and large corporations based in Connecticut. He previously covered education for Greenwich Time and general assignments for the Westport News. Paul welcomes readers' ideas and suggestions and strives to cultivate a robust dialogue with Hearst Connecticut Media's audience.