Milwaukee Tool has announced that they will be further expanding their USA manufacturing footprint with a new facility in Grenada, Mississippi.
The new Milwaukee facility will serve to “accommodate increased capacity for the company’s growing power tool accessories and power tool business.”
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The facility, which Milwaukee Tool specifically describes as a manufacturing facility, will span 500,000 square feet.
Milwaukee currently produces quite a few power tool accessories here in the United States, such as Sawzall blades, Hole Dozer hole saws, step drill bits, and oscillating multi-tool blades. They also manufacture certain power tools here, such as Sawzall reciprocating saws and the M18 Packout-compatible cordless vacuum.
Milwaukee expects for the new facility to open in late 2022, and they say they have committed to creating 1,200 jobs in the region. 800 of the new jobs will reside within the new Grenada facility, and the other 400 jobs will reside at Milwaukee’s existing Mississippi locations.
Related: Milwaukee Tool is Ranked in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work
Back in 2017, Milwaukee Tool pledged to create new USA jobs with a then-new 4-year expansion plan. More recently, Milwaukee Tool announced plans for USA-made hand tools, Now, they’re expanding with a new manufacturing facility.
Milwaukee Tool reports that they have invested $368 million in domestic expansion products over the last five years alone, and currently employ 5,500 people in the United States. They also say that they will be investing $60 million towards advanced technology and manufacturing equipment to support the new Grenada facility.
Discussion
Milwaukee Tool has pledged to bring more jobs and tool production to the United States, and they’re delivering on those promises.
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Not only that, this will be a manufacturing facility.
Sounds good to me!
See Also
Milwaukee USA Factory Tour: How a Typical Sawzall Blade is Made
Jim Felt
Sneaky devils those Germans.
Kidding. This is great.
Bringing good prideful factory jobs back to NA. And to both the cheaper south and the upper heartland. Win win.
Stuart
I don’t get the joke.
josh Morris
Me neither Milwaukee is Chinese owned
TonyT
Hong Kong owned, but the founder is German, maybe that’s what he’s referring to.
Andy
It’s publically traded, so it’s hard to say who owns it. Heck, I owned some about a year ago.
fred
The last time I look Horst Pudwell still owned 20% of the stock as the major stockholder. His family members are said to own another 1.9% All the other stockholders (many investment firms like JP Morgan and Vanguard etc.) held less than 5% each – with the top 8 among them holding about 21% in total. So like many other publicly traded companies – the owners are many and diverse.
Jim Felt
German founder and family members are still involved. And wasn’t his first major sale to the pre bankrupt Sears? Twenty odd years ago?
Yeah I was being kinda obtuse but given the once Wisconsin based “Milwaukee” tool company I love symmetry.
And I still have a number of almost ancient corded “Made in Milwaukee” corded tools in their steel fitted red cases.
Padgett
Right on
Chris
Awesome!
Andrew
Sweet! I’m sick of hearing those Dewalt guys say “made in USA” blah blah blah.
Then you point them to the fine print, Made in USA with Global parts. Silence.
I’m glad I stuck with Milwaukee.
Keep er up!
Kentucky fan
This exact site went to the facility where Dewalt puts together their drills. Alot more than you would think is made in the US in those tools.
It would be impossible to make a truly made in the US without the global materials caveat power tool in the modern world.
Stuart
https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/dewalt-brushless-drill-building-and-factory-tour/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Yep! They converted space at a fulfillment center and set it up with assembly lines as well as motor production.
Some of the tool components and subassemblies originated from overseas, but more than I expected came from Dewalt and SBD factories stateside.
Padgett
I hear new grinders are coming to U.S bit already being used U.S Europe…made here,honestly i dont care where there made at..I just use them well,,some .org them
Chris I
Can you name any end-user consumer product that’s made exclusively in the US without a single international part?
TonyT
And it goes the other way, too.
Almost all “Made In China” products are actually assembled in China with global components.
Kentucky fan
The made in usa definition is very hard to meet legally. Pretty much anything that says made in the USA and only that is very close to 100% usa made. However for most consumer products it is impossible to meet that requirement hence the global materials caveat.
Stuart
Channellock advertises their pliers as being 100% made in USA.
Really Right Stuff, a camera support brand, sources everything here for most of their products, including the hex keys they include with camera plates and accessories.
Jared
I applaud the effort.
Pliers are probably easier to make in one country than power tools though. Not as many parts (that’s not a critique of Channellock – they are one of my favorite brands).
Jim Felt
At one point I even had RRS tell me their actual SS screws were US made. Since they left California I’ve not spoken with anyone there. But maybe still?
Stuart
I’d bet on it.
Not everything they offer is made here; I believe their tripod cases and accessory pouches are imported, but they’re respectable quality as well.
I will gladly – but painfully – spend more for RRS, Kirk, or other USA gear brands, but some imported brands are better than I expected. I received some SmallRig products for free as part of a bundle, and I liked them. I have since purchased some SmallRig accessories. There are some USA-made alternatives, but I spent more (a LOT more) for some of those brands and was disappointed at the quality, especially for the money.
I ordered parts from Manfrotto and Avenger, and some of their products have extremely poor quality control despite being made in Italy.
For instance, SmallRig ARRI-style accessory: perfect fit and function. Manfrotto: obscene pricing (but it’s a specialty accessory with no alternatives) and I had to bend the alignment pins and it still doesn’t fit perfectly.
Sean
SK Tools 😁🎉🎉🎉
Jon
Competition is good for the end user. Putting aside the constant back and forth of who is better, Dewalt or Milwaukee. It’s good to see how they continuously work to match the others footprint. Dewalt bringing manufacturing stateside and milwaukee doing the same is more jobs locally and that is a win win. I for one have no problem paying more knowing its supporting hard working locals and their families. Not to say anyone across the pond isn’t working hard, it’s just sad when we get views into some of the working conditions they are put through. When something says made here, and we buy it, it reminds these companies we do care about those details. Not just the tool, but how it came to be. Even if it’s just assembled here from foreign components, as is the case most of the time.
Wes
Nice to see there will be more USA made tools like malco and what they have done with the new eagle grips are amazing. Check them out as well.
OhioHead
Makita is expanding in GA as well!
Stuart
But not manufacturing.
Makita wouldn’t share any specifics when they broke ground, and I now asked them to clarify what they mean by “operations” and “training.” No response yet. Sounds like offices, maybe warehouse space, sales associate training. These are all necessary for customer-support, but I’m not impressed.
From what I’ve seen, Makita doesn’t even design any tools here, which probably explains why I can never get anyone at Makita USA to answer any real questions. They seem to ignore any press or media inquiries unless there’s a pre-packaged marketing answer.
OhioHead
Gotcha about Makita not manufacturing in the US, I agree the release was vague.
Kentucky fan
I have makita grinders that are assembled in the USA manufactured in the last few years.
Jim Felt
My recollection maybe 20 years ago from Makita’s US ad agency that had reached out to us as a potential vendor was only warehousing, fulfillment, repair and national marketing were in their US wheelhouse.
And from what Stuart has repeatedly noted not much useful product communications.
Nathan
nearly everything today even “made in america” uses global materials. Kicker you don’t have to disclose global materials.
So the fact they go out of their way to state it – speaks to clarity of the statement.
meanwhile – this is near me. so have they mentioned what will be made here?
Kent Skinner
Always happy to have more Made in the USA options. I’m guessing that those areas could use more good jobs, too.
Nice move Milwaukee; I’ll continue to grow my collection of red tools.
Lynyrd
TTI, a Hong Kong Company is feeling the political/economic pressure from China and the U.S.
Firstly, recall during the last Administration, Hong Kong lost import exceptions from the U.S. and would be treated the same as China. This included stricter regulations and increased tariffs.
Secondly, the situation with Taiwan and the South China Sea is leading to armed conflict, possibly war. As One third of World Trade passes through the South China Sea, any escalation will jeopardize commerce from Hong Kong, Taiwan, as well as Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and China itself.
Companies such as Stanley Black & Decker which have significant manufacturing in Mexico would be a winner, with little disruption in trade, although a majority of their parts come from that region.
TTI is a technically a Chinese company, but their DNA is from an independent Hong Kong, so preparations to move manufacturing away from China is in line with their need, and nothing about providing USA jobs, although it will give them a Marketing talking point.
I fear though, they have waited too late.
Tom D
I wonder if this is the return of supply-line efficiency. As manufacturing costs begin to normalize (one way this happens is number of man hours per component decreases) the shipping costs (both in fuel, etc and in time – two months supply in boats is a large amount of bound capital) it becomes more efficient to do final assembly and packaging closer to the end customer. You can ship components more tightly packed than you can assembled tools in boxes.
SC Tool Guy
I hope this is a real factory with actual manufacturing, and not just a fake USA “UPS Store” factory where college kids snap together parts made in China and Mexico like legos and put them in boxes.
Stuart
Look at the linked-to “how Milwaukee power tool accessories are made” posts for an example of what made in USA has meant for them so far.
None of their expansion efforts have been sham for-show-only efforts so far, why would they start now?
SC tool guy
That great news. I’m hoping they don’t follow SBD
MarylandUSA
Soon most Milwaukee tools–not accessories–will probably be made in Mexico. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.freightwaves.com/news/milwaukee-tools-among-new-factories-in-mexico-queretaro-restricts-cargo-truck-access/amp
CharlestonToolMan
Yup. And you can bet these “manufacturing jobs” will be robot and assembly