History of Black&Decker

Two young entrepreneurs, S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker, started a small machine shop in Baltimore, Maryland. They called it The Black & Decker® Manufacturing Company. Their shop grew beyond anything they could have imagined.

According manuals today, Black & Decker® is a global player and manufacturer of quality products used in both indoor and outdoor home and industrial applications. It is also a leading provider of information systems and services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Black & Decker® product lines are market leaders in their respective sectors in more than 100 countries, with approximately half of revenues coming from outside the United States.

The company is the world's largest manufacturer of power tools and accessories. Its home appliance division is the leader in the United States and is among the world's competitors in the compact home appliance industry.

So what was the chain of events that led to the growth of a small machine shop in the early 1900s into today's global manufacturing and trading empire? You can get the answer by looking at the sequence of major events in the company's history.

• 1917 - The company received a patent for a pistol grip and trigger switch for drills. The first Black & Decker® plant was also built, covering 12,000 square feet in Towson, near Baltimore, USA.
• 1922 - The company establishes its first overseas subsidiary, Black & Decker® Manufacturing Company, Ltd., in Canada and builds its first assembly, sales and service center outside the United States. A corded screwdriver is added to the product line.
• 1925 - International expansion continues. Black & Decker®, Ltd. opens in London, UK as a full-service sales and service center for the United Kingdom.
• 1928 - Black & Decker® acquires Van Dorn Electric Tool Company (Cleveland, Ohio), a manufacturer of professional power tools.
• 1929 - Black & Decker® (Australasia) Pty., is established in Sydney, Australia as a full-service warehouse, engine manufacturing, sales and service centre.
• 1941 - The Towson plant began producing fuses, gun barrels, and other artillery components for the Allies. Although much of its production capacity was devoted to the war effort, the company continued to manufacture power tools within the limits of the laws of the time.
• 1943 - Black & Decker® receives a prestigious award from the U.S. Department of Defense, one of four awards the Company received during World War II.
• 1946 - An additional sales and service support centre is established in West Hampshire. Moving south The company opens a full-service warehouse, service and sales centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• 1950 - The millionth home drill rolls off the factory assembly line, marking a new milestone in the Company's history.
• 1951 - Sir Duncan Black, co-founder and President of the Company since 1910, dies on April 15 at the age of 68. He is succeeded as President by Sir Alonzo Decker. The Company begins work on a 40,000 sq. m site for a plant in Hampstead, Maryland, USA.
• 1954 - While serving as President of the Company, Sir Alonzo Decker was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors.
• 1955 - Black & Decker® South Africa (Pty.), Ltd. is established as a full-fledged warehouse, sales and service centre in Johannesburg (relocated to Cape Town in 1958) and the Company also builds a 12,000 sq. m manufacturing plant in Crowdon, Victoria, Australia.
• 1956 - Sir Alonzo Decker died on March 18 at the age of 72. Robert D. Black, brother of Sir Duncan Black and a long-time employee of the Company, was named Chairman of the Board and President.
• 1957 – 1958 - Black & Decker® (Belgium) SA is established as a full-fledged warehouse, sales and service centre in Brussels. In 1958, Black & Decker® (New Zealand) Ltd. opens in Auckland, while Black & Decker®, GmbH is founded in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Black & Decker® (Nederland) BV is founded in Rotterdam, Holland.
• 1959 - Black & Decker® forms a subsidiary, Master Power Corporation, to acquire Master Pneumatic Tool Company, a manufacturer of professional air tools with operations in Ohio and Canada.
• 1960 - Alonzo G. Decker, Jr., son of one of the company's founders and an employee since 1930, succeeds Robert D. Black as Chairman of the Board. That same year, Black & Decker® acquires DeWalt, Inc. (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), a manufacturer of radial arm saws and other woodworking machines in the United States and Canada.
• 1965 - The Hampstead plant is expanded to 80,000 square feet, allowing the transfer of manufacturing operations from Towson. This move marked the end of production in Towson, where the facility was restructured into a major high-tech research center.
• 1967 – 1968 - The British Company received the Queen's Award for Industry for outstanding achievements in increasing exports. The Italian Company won the coveted Oscar del Commercia from the Italian government for its invaluable contributions to the domestic economy.
• 1970 – 1971 The Company acquired Carbide Router Company, Inc., Moonachie, New Jersey, USA. In 1971, Black & Decker® (Nigeria), Ltd. in Lagos and Black & Decker® Argentina SACI in Buenos Aires were opened.
• 1972 - The Japanese government approves the project to manufacture Black & Decker® power tools in Japan. Nippon B&D KK becomes the first non-Japanese company to receive such approval and permission to privately own a manufacturing facility in five years.
• 1973 - A British company introduces the Workmate®; the combination clamp, workbench and sawhorse wins the UK Design Council Award of Excellence.
• 1974 – Sales surpassed the $500 million mark. Black & Decker® introduced the first one-year customer satisfaction guarantee in the United States.
• 1975 – Alonzo G. Decker, Jr. relinquished his position as CEO but remained chairman of the board. Francis P. Lucier succeeded Decker as CEO and later became president. This was the first time in the company's history that a non-Black or Decker family member served as CEO.
• 1979 – American power tool company Black & Decker® (US), Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Annual sales exceeded $1 billion for the first time.
• 1984 – Robert D. Black, former chairman and chief executive officer, died in March at age 84.
• Acording by Black & Decker manuals 1984 – Black & Decker® announced a major reorganization plan to restructure corporate management and consolidate operations. Plants in Maidenhead and Harmondsworth, England; Kildare, Ireland; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Solon, Ohio, USA were closed. Production was transferred to other Black & Decker® facilities. Also in 1984, the company acquired the small appliance business of General Electric. Black & Decker® began an unprecedented program to transfer the Black & Decker® brand name to the appliances acquired from General Electric.
• 1984 – The company introduced a new logo to reflect its broader product range and international trading experience. The new logo retained the bright orange color long associated with the company and a legacy of the previous hexagonal mark.
• 1985 – Black & Decker® celebrated its 75th anniversary. The celebration included the placement of a time capsule containing company memorabilia in the newly renovated Towson Maintenance Building. The capsule will remain sealed until 2085. Signaling a greater focus on marketing and sales, the company's shareholders approved changing its name to Black & Decker® Corporation.
• 1987 – Black & Decker® was back in full swing. Profits doubled and sales reached the highest level in the company's history. They exceeded $2 billion, and Black & Decker® was named one of the 200 largest industrial companies based in the United States by Fortune magazine. Sales & Marketing Management Magazine named the company's sales force the best in the U.S. market.
• 1988 – The company was awarded the Purchasing Magazine Medal of Excellence for its purchasing activities and expertise.
• 1989 – Black & Decker® acquired Emhart Corporation (revenue: $2.8 billion), nearly doubling its size and establishing a presence among respected brands with Kwikset® door locks and hardware, Price Pfister® valves, Molly® wall anchors, POPR rivets, True Temper golf clubs and many other consumer and commercial products. For its contributions to the battery-powered power tool industry and NASA's Gemini and Apollo programs, Black & Decker® is inducted into the NASA Hall of Fame.
• 1990 – The company paid approximately $700 million for its acquisitions, which it obtained by selling six businesses that were not of strategic importance (two more businesses were sold in early 1991, raising more than $100 million to cover the debts of the acquisitions). A survey of 10,000 customers ranked the company seventh in the United States and nineteenth in Europe among 6,000 companies for brand recognition and respectability. Black & Decker® began a total quality control process designed to improve customer satisfaction in all segments of the company's operations.
• 1992 – A completely new line of DEWALT professional hand-held power tools is introduced in North America.
• 1993 – The company’s new product and customer service won it the “Retailer of the Year” award from Wal-Mart, Builders Square, LG Cook, BMA, Channel Home Centers and several other leading companies. In addition, the Elu series of select professional power tools was launched in Europe.
• 1993 - The latest range of Dustbuster® cordless vacuum cleaners won the prestigious British Design Award from the Design Council.
• 1995 – A new manufacturer of industrial power tools and accessories, DeWalt, is introduced in Europe
• 1996 – Almost all of the company's enterprises took first or second place in the market and improved their positions during the year, which was a reflection of the constant work on new advanced products.
• 1998 – Black & Decker® achieves its strongest balance sheet in 10 years and core business sales reach record levels.
• 1999 – Focus on globalizing operations by leveraging the Internet and e-commerce strategy to support key retail partners expanding their operations in North America and around the world.
• 1999 - The Black & Decker® VP2000K Quattro® multi-tool was awarded the prestigious Product of the Millennium status by the Design Council.
• 000 - Black & Decker®'s Mouse® Sander wins the 11th Annual Design Week Consumer Product Award. Mouse® also wins the IDSA American Design Award.
• 2002 - Black & Decker® and Hitachi Koki signed a power tool cooperation agreement.
• 2002 - Black & Decker® receives an IDSA Bronze Award for the unique design of the Dustbuster® vacuum cleaner.
• 2003 – Black & Decker® sells its security systems business to Assa Abloy for $108 million.
• 2003 - Black & Decker® acquires Baldwin Hardware Corporation and Weiser Lock Corporation. The deal is valued at $275 million.
• 2004 – Black & Decker® reports fourth-quarter 2003 earnings per share before restructuring charges of $1.35 and a record $4.02 for the full year, resulting in free cash flow of $480 million.
• 2004 – Black & Decker® reports record earnings per share from continuing operations in the second quarter of 2004.
• 2004 - Black & Decker® announces the acquisition of Tools Group from Pentair, Inc. (NYSE: PNR) for $775 million. Tools Group, which includes Porter-Cable, Delta, DeVilbiss Air Power, Oldham Saw, and FLEX, has revenues of $1.08 billion and operating income of $82 million in 2003.
• 2005 - Launch of the innovative Alligator® lopper, a user-friendly tool for working with garden trees. This product was highly acclaimed and received the prestigious German IF Design Award 2006.
• 2007 - Black & Decker®'s second generation cylinder vacuum cleaners received a Plus X design award; our innovative Pivot® Dustbuster® vacuum cleaner received a Plus X nod for design and ergonomics.