INDEX: Irwin Industrial Tools Retail Fixtures

INDEX:
Irwin Industrial Tools Retail Fixtures

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This Irwin Industrial Tools Retail Fixtures index page aggregates links
to all post and photos of the brand’s retail merchandising and outfitting.

BACKSTORY: Irwin Industrial Tools is an American manufacturer and distributor of hand tools and power tool accessories. It is owned by Stanley Black & Decker. It is best known for producing Vise-Grip locking pliers. Additionally, it produces clamps, drill bits, taps and dies, screw extractors, bolt extractors, saw blades, pipe wrenches, screwdrivers, snips, and other construction tools.^[2]

Irwin was founded in 1885 in Martinsville, Ohio as the Irwin Auger Bit Company by Charles Irwin, a pharmacist. Irwin had bought the rights to a solid-center auger bit from a local blacksmith.^[3]

In 1924, another blacksmith, Danish immigrant William Petersen of DeWitt, Nebraska, invented the first locking pliers^[4] and named them Vise-Grips.^[5] In 1934, Petersen formed the Petersen Manufacturing Company to produce them.^[6] In 1957, Petersen added an easy-release trigger to the design, creating the modern locking pliers design.^[7]

In 1985, the Petersen family American Tool Companies and bought out Petersen Manufacturing.^{[clarification needed]} In 1993, American acquired the Irwin Tool Company, and in 2002, Newell Rubbermaid acquired American. In 2003, the company officially changed its name to Irwin Industrial Tool Company.^[8]

In 2008, Irwin announced the closing of its DeWitt, Nebraska plant, ending 80 years of American production for Vise-Grips, citing a necessity to move production to China “to keep the Vise-Grip name competitive.”^[9]

In 2010, Irwin closed the customer service office in Wilmington, OH and moved the customer service department to Huntersville, NC.

In October 2016 Stanley Black & Decker Inc agreed to buy Newell Brands Inc.’s tools business for $1.95 billion in cash. The acquisition was completed in March of 2017.^[1] (SOURDE: Wikipedia)

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