I was talking to my cousin who now lives in SC (and has for a while). He was a regional head for the Eastern US for a large well known tool supplier (hand tools, drills, etc..). He has since left the company (or actually retired at 50 to golf). The company sells under their own brand name but also supplied Sears and other larger brand names.
He said at when he started the company had 15 US factories building the tools, that went to 9 and now there are none. He was very positive about the quality of the US build product and very iffy on the quality of the offshore product they are importing. I had a good laugh when he told me about a test he had run using step drills. He set up a large scale test comparing foreign and US built step drills for a client – the better quality domestics lasted for many drills, while some of the offshore ones failed at less than half a dozen drills. The client – a very well respected US brand – actually passed on the cheaper drills due to concerns with their brand reputation.
But in the end I guess, cost rules.
