Dewalt first announced their ToughSystem modular tool box system in mid-2011, and the line’s first tool boxes and accessories launched soon after that.
In recent years, they’ve been expanding their ToughSystem 2.0 tool storage system, which is largely backwards compatible with very few exceptions.
Tool brands don’t often talk about sourcing and production details, but there are usually clues.
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So who makes Dewalt’s ToughSystem tool storage products?
Back in 2011, Stanley Black & Decker and Dewalt had their Israel-based storage product team lead on-site to introduce the ToughSystem at a luncheon media event in NYC.
All signs pointed to ToughSystem being an in-house designed and manufactured product. And if ToughSystem is designed and manufactured in-house at Stanley Black & Decker, the same could be said about their other tool boxes and organizers, T-Stak lines, and other such products.
Let’s go back a bit.
I used to like a particular style of Stanley removable compartment organizer. I sought it out years ago, and at that time I noticed it had ZAG co-branding.
ZAG Industries Ltd was a Israel-based plastic tool box and related products manufacturer that Stanley agreed to acquire in 1998. News reports from the time say that Stanley acquired 90% of the company, with ZAG’s founder holding the rest of the shares.
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Business profiles, such as via Glassdoor, describe ZAG as being “The world’s largest maker of plastic toolboxes.”
According to an article by Plastic News, ZAG did not expect their operations to change following the takeover by Stanley Works, and that Stanley was buying their innovativeness.
At the time (1998) the Plastic News article also said that:
Eight facilities around the world mold for Zag, most of which are subcontractors. Green said Zag does about a quarter of its own molding. Its contract molders include one in Mexicali, Mexico, and Technoplast Industries Ltd. in Barkan, Israel. It also has a distribution center in Carteret, N.J.
The CEO for Stanley Works said:
With our distribution base and Zag’s speed to market and creativity, we intend to capture a significant share of the growing market for plastic storage solutions
This was all 25 years ago, and I could not find much information about how ZAG has grown or been developed since then.
Stanley Black & Decker continues to design, develop, and manufacture certain products in Israel, in addition to tool storage products.
It would be reasonable to think that Stanley Black & Decker has invested funds to grow and expand their capabilities since then.
Now, as you might have caught in the title, I said that Stanley Black & Decker has its own tool box companies. That’s not an error.
Stanley Black & Decker acquired Waterloo, a USA metal tool storage manufacturer, in 2017.
Prior to that, Waterloo produced significant volumes of steel tool chests, roller cabinets, mobile workbenches, handheld tool boxes, and more, under their own brand and for Craftsman under Sears.
Waterloo now produces steel storage products for Craftsman and presumably other Stanley Black & Decker brands.
In the industrial sector, Stanley Black & Decker owns Lista and Vidmar storage-focused brands, and also produces storage products for their own Proto brand.
Do they have arrangements with other tool box makers? Possibly.
In 2017, with the announcement of new ToughSystem drawer units, there was mention of Dewalt partnering with Sortimo to develop a van-mounting racking system, but it’s unclear if anything ever materialized from those tentative plans. That at least showed a willingness for Stanley Black & Decker to work with other companies when appropriate.
There has been some cooperation between ZAG and Keter in the past – I found a 2003 news article (via Globes) detailing an arrangement between the two brands regarding Israel’s local market.
However, there’s no reason to think that Keter is in any way involved with Stanley Black & Decker with respect to the Dewalt ToughSystem or T-Stak line of tool boxes.
At the time, the Globes article said:
ZAG is considered the global leader in toolbox manufacturing for the do-it-yourself retail chains, with a 50% share of the world market.
That was 20 years ago, how have things changed since then?
I wish I had a crystal clear view of what goes on behind the scenes, but these things are always murky.
What is clear is that Stanley Black & Decker, parent company to Dewalt, Craftsman, MAC, and other tool brands, has within their corporate umbrella the know-how and in-house capabilities to design, develop, and manufacture plastic and steel tool boxes.
TomD
I have to wonder how Israel of all places became such a big name in … plastic toolboxes? Aren’t almost all of them from there?
And if so, why? I can’t believe Israel manufacturing costs are significantly lower than USA if you consider shipping, and especially cheaper than China, so perhaps there are tax benefits associated with it? Or they patented some feature of connectable plastic toolboxes?
Stuart
There are plastic tool box manufacturers worldwide. I couldn’t tell you why some of the biggest names, such as ZAG and Keter, are headquartered there.
This also isn’t something new. As mentioned, according to the 2003 article – prior to the launch of ToughSystem, T-Stak, Milwaukee Packout, Ridgid Pro Gear, and other systems – ZAG held 50% of market share.
There were many made-in-Israel tool boxes even before the modular tool storage market grew to what it is today.
Steve L
Israel has a small population. If you want a large company you need to export. Plastic is lightweight so freight costs are lower compared to metal and wood.
So you engineer and manufacture high value plastic items and the lowish freight costs let you be competitive globally?
Just a guess.
TomD
Unless you’re going air, volume matters more than weight (unless it’s really heavy).
Mike (the other one)
Plastic is made from oil. Oil is cheap in the the Middle East.
Stuart
Plastic tool boxes are molded from plastic pellets.
The Middle East is a source of oil exports, but what about plastic pellets? My understanding is that turning oil to plastic is part of the chemical industry, and it’s unclear where that work is done.
Steve L
Israel is not on the best of terms with those who control oil. My guess is they pay what anyone else pays with lower freight costs due to location – that is not a large advantage.
Doug N
Yes but that makes it an even more interesting story. So the oil is shipped from the Persian gulf to petrochemical companies like DuPont, Chevron, etc. We don’t know where that happens but could be as far as China and USA. Then those pellets are shipped back to the middle east (Israel) to be manufactured into tool boxes, then back out again to the rest of the world.
Aaron SD
Europe also manufactures lots of resin for injection molding.
JR Ramos
I think maybe it has to do with recognizing a superior product and having the market beat down a path to your doorstep.
Noga and Shaviv are the two major players in high quality deburring tools, both in Israel, and they are the de facto standard in quality and innovation. The Band-Aid and Velcro, if you will.
Back in the day it seems that the plastic tool boxes from Rubbermaid, Stanley, and Homak were just average in quality, durability, and design. Flambeau being a little better but they never got too much into the tool market. Those were all made here for a long time. I may be wrong but it seems as through the big power tool brands are who upped the ante a little bit as some shifted from metal to blow mold to molded plastic cases and the quality improved (before they disappeared and we got nylon satchels or nothing…).
Israel kept up their quality and availability, many US manufacturers moved production overseas or cut lines rather than improve to compete. It’s good to see many, many more quality plastic toolboxes and job boxes/organizers/packout type stuff now even though the prices are too darn high really. There are some China oem/odm companies that are getting on board with that now, too.
Mark
I miss the blow molded cases.
Robert
Israel pioneered plastic drip irrigation. Perhaps after drip irrigation was a mature technology, those designers went looking for a related field like plastic tool boxes to maintain employment. Like other theories here, just a guess.
Nate
Nice point, but it really illustrates the larger drivers. Drip irrigation was driven by smart resource management and state of the art manufacturing. Israel has few natural resources, and has limited water. It does have a well educated populace (both for cultural [Jews long emphasized learning Hebrew and being multilingual] and economic [few resources, so educating the workforce is the primary economic driver] reasons). Israel shares this (for similar driving reasons) with Switzerland and East Asian countries (Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, China). Israeli has very high manufacturing quality and invests heavily in high technology. Their equivalent of Silicon Valley (Silicon Wadi) is second only in importance internationally to it’s California counterpart.
Nate
Sorry, meant to put Japan in place of China…
Robert
Has not Taiwan caught up to our Silicon Valley? I keep reading that now over 50% of the world’s chips are made there.
TonyT
Made by TSMC, not designed by Taiwanese companies
Nate
Taiwan is a world leader in manufacturing integrated circuits, but isn’t a world beater in design work. Taiwan saw traditional US chip manufacturing (vertically integrated design and manufacturing) and saw a huge opportunity to specialize on manufacturing as the cost to produce chips skyrocketed in the late 80s. Interestingly, by not designing their own chips, they have become REALLY good at adapting their manufacturing processes to meet other designs.
US still leads in the design area (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA Apple, Qualcomm, etc). Silicon Valley is still THE place to get capital and talent to make this happen. ARM is British. Most of these companies run a design house in Israel. Intel famously used to iterate designs between its US office and Israel every other year.
The other really important company in integrated circuits is ASML, which has Dutch ownership but has huge US presence. They make the photolithography machines that enable modern chips to be made.
LGonToolGuy'd
Articles like this are why I love Toolguyd
Jim Felt
Agree. Totally!!! ;-)~
Jomar
Recently was in market for tool box system. Was inclined for Dewalt ToughtSystem 2.0, but in one visit to my local Pepboys, saw a Craftsman Modular Toolbox with wheels that caught my attention, I brought it because is “Made in 🇺🇲”.
TonyT
I believe some DeWalt TS and Ryobi Link is Made in USA, too. (I still wouldn’t buy the Link).
Stuart
Yes, but only certain 1.0 series SKUs to my knowledge.
Franco Calcagni
Any of the suppositions above can be valid, including the first post that mentioned tax benefits.
My company, HQ in the US, started an office Montreal, Canada, based on incentives. I do not know all the details but the main incentive was the gov’t paid 2/3 of employee salaries for the first 5 years. (the joke was anything with a heartbeat would be hired). Beyond this, I know there were other things written into the deal, but I do not know exactly what it was. Could have been on the gov’t side that the company had to remain in Montreal X number of years after the first 5 years.
Could have been many assurances either for the company or the gov’t, or both.
Sometimes, if you can throw enough money at a company to start in your country, and incentives to stay for a good period of time. Once enough time has gone by, it makes more sense to stay where you have everything established, rather than to close up and start fresh elsewhere, even more so if you are doing quite well where you are.
Just another possibility to the many mentioned above.
TonyT
Update on some COO’s:
Husky Build Out: all three types I checked were made in China. Their quality seemed better than HF’s Bauer line (also made in China)
Ryobi Link: at the 4 models I looked at, 3 were made in Vietnam, 1 was Made in USA with global materials