Stanley Black & Decker is slashing around 300 jobs and shuttering a Connecticut factory — wiping out roughly half of its workforce in its longtime hometown.
State Rep. Dave DeFronzo said the toolmaker is cutting about half of its 600-person workforce in New Britain and closing a tape-measure manufacturing facility which produces single-sided tape measures.
The company confirmed the move.
“As a result of a structural decline in demand for single-sided tape measures, we have decided to close our facility in New Britain that predominantly makes these products,” Debora Raymond, vice president of external communications for Stanley Black & Decker, told The Post on Monday.
“These products are quickly becoming obsolete in the markets we serve.”
Raymond added that the company was now “focused on supporting impacted employees through this transition, including providing options for employment at other facilities, severance, and job placement support services for both salaried and hourly employees.”
Stanley Black & Decker reported 600 employees in New Britain in 2024. The closure would eliminate about half of those jobs. The company will keep its headquarters in the city open.
It is unclear when the company plans to shutter the facility.
“It’s a sad day for New Britain,” DeFronzo told WFSB-TV.
“Stanley has a long history here, and slowly but surely its presence has been eroded. I think if you talk to most people in the city, they have family or a grandparent that worked at Stanley. They provided good jobs for a lot of people at quality wages.”
Stanley Black & Decker has been based in New Britain since 1843, when Frederick T. Stanley opened a small bolt and door hardware shop that would grow into one of America’s best-known toolmakers.
Over more than 180 years, the company helped earn New Britain the nickname “Hardware City,” expanding from traditional hand tools into a global manufacturing powerhouse while keeping its world headquarters rooted in the city.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said the company’s decision to halt production of what he described as outdated products would be painful for workers and their families, but expressed hope that those affected could find new opportunities.
“Although Stanley has made the decision to discontinue operations for manufacturing outdated products, a change in workforce opportunities is difficult for employees, their families, and any community,” the Dem said in a statement.
“However, I am hopeful that these skilled workers will be repurposed with the help of Stanley Black & Decker, a company that will still proudly be headquartered here in Connecticut.”
The closure raises deeper questions about the limits of trade policy as an economic remedy, according to Dean Lyulkin, founder of The Dean’s List.
“If trade policy alone were enough to revive domestic manufacturing, an iconic American brand like Stanley Black & Decker would not be shutting down a facility with hundreds of jobs attached to it,” Lyulkin said.
“Protection can shift margins at the edge, but it cannot manufacture demand, beat automation or force capital to stay where returns no longer make sense.”
Lyulkin argued that both political parties have been reluctant to confront the underlying economic forces at play.
“This is the uncomfortable truth both political parties tend to avoid: markets ultimately decide where capital flows,” he said.
“If a product line is declining or can be produced more efficiently elsewhere, no headline about tariffs changes that math. We can debate trade policy all day, but competitive reality and return on investment win in the end.”
Stanley Black & Decker has been in the midst of a multiyear restructuring aimed at slashing costs and streamlining its global supply chain.
The company has cut roughly 7,000 jobs since late 2023 and completed a $2 billion cost-reduction program that included facility consolidations and workforce reductions.
