Milwaukee Tool Announces $26M Hand Tool Factory

The new facility is expected to create about 100 jobs in its native Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Tool headquarters, Brookfield, Wis.
Milwaukee Tool headquarters, Brookfield, Wis.
Milwaukee Tool

A little more than a month after announcing a $100 million-plus expansion in south central and southeastern Wisconsin, Milwaukee Tool on Friday announced another project in the Badger State in a new $26 million plant that will make hand tools.

The company said the vertically integrated manufacturing plant will be built in West Bend, about 20 minutes from Milwaukee Tool's global headquarters in Brookfield. The company expects to break ground in April of this year, with production slated to begin in early 2021.

The plant will produce hand tools for professional electricians and utility linemen.

"We will continue to invest, we will continue to grow, and we will continue to change the game," said Steve Richman, group president of Milwaukee Tool. "In 2020 alone, we will invest over $100 million, and create 350 jobs in the United States to diversify our operations and better serve the professional trades."

In mid-December, Milwaukee Tool announced that it would invest more than $100 million in a new campus at Menomonee Falls, Wis., and spend $7.5 million to expand its Imperial Blades production facilities in the Madison suburb of Sun Prairie.

The company currently has U.S. manufacturing and distribution operations in Greenwood, Olive Branch and Jackson, Miss., as well as in Mukwonago and Sun Prairie, Wis. Along with the new West Bend plant, the company said Friday its other 2020 plans include new operations in Cookeville, Tenn., for power tool manufacturing and assembly, Sun Prairie for accessories manufacturing, and Olive Branch for a new 766,000-square-foot distribution facility.

Milwaukee Tool officials said the company has grown from 190,000 square-feet and 300 jobs in Brookfield in 2011 to 390,000 square-feet and more than 1,400 jobs this year.

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