Stanley Black & Decker — the parent company of DeWalt, Craftsman, and Stanley — is shutting down its last manufacturing facility in New Britain, Connecticut. The closure will eliminate approximately 300 jobs and ends a manufacturing presence that the company has held in the city for over 180 years.
Multiple Connecticut news outlets confirmed the closure on February 26, 2026. An SBD representative cited “a structural decline in demand for single-sided tape measures,” saying the products are “quickly becoming obsolete in the markets we serve.”
New Britain Was Stanley’s Birthplace
This isn’t just any factory. New Britain, Connecticut earned the nickname “The Hardware City” largely because of Stanley. The company was founded there in 1843, and the city’s identity has been intertwined with Stanley’s manufacturing heritage for generations. Closing the final plant there marks the end of an era — the last physical tie between the brand and its founding home.
Stanley Black & Decker has been steadily moving production offshore for years, part of a broader strategy to cut costs and compete on price. The company shifted tape measure production to facilities in Thailand, and Craftsman tape measures continue to be made in Sedalia, Missouri — so the closure in New Britain doesn’t mean the end of US tape measure production entirely.
What’s Driving the Decline
The company’s explanation points to a real trend: laser distance tools have become cheap, accurate, and widely available. A basic laser measure now sells for under $30 and can measure a room in seconds. For many contractors and serious DIYers, the tape measure is increasingly a backup tool rather than the primary one.
That doesn’t mean tape measures are disappearing from job sites — they’re still essential for precise short-run measurements, marking, and situations where a laser won’t work. But the addressable market for traditional single-sided tape measures has clearly contracted enough that SBD can no longer justify domestic manufacturing costs at this facility.
Power Tool Brands Not Directly Impacted
For buyers of SBD’s power tool brands, this announcement has no direct impact on product availability or quality. DeWalt drills, saws, and impact drivers are manufactured in plants across the US, Mexico, and overseas — a separate part of the business from the New Britain tape measure operation.
The closure does, however, signal the continued financial pressure SBD is managing. The company has been working to streamline operations and reduce its cost base for the past several years, including selling off some brands and consolidating manufacturing globally.
If you’re researching DeWalt or Craftsman power tools, our roundup of the best pro combo kits for 2026 covers the current DeWalt XR and Craftsman V20 lineups in detail. For a broader look at how the major platforms compare, see our battery platform comparison. And if you missed what SBD brands were showing at industry events this year, our World of Concrete 2026 coverage has the full breakdown.
Sources: ToolGuyd, Hartford Courant, CT News Junkie.
