Using online historical newspaper archives, I have been able to construct a history of the manufacturing of the Black & Decker Workmate. Over its 50+-year history it has been manufactured in many countries worldwide, but my research has focused on North America and the UK.
Production of U.S. Workmates Black & Decker opened a Canadian factory in Brockville, Ontario in 1957. In 1968, manufacturing of the company's orbital sanders was moved from the U.S. to Brockville and the tools became highly successful worldwide for Black & Decker. Based on the success of the sander production, Brockville was able to establish its own product-development group in 1974. This group was the part of the company that saw that the Workmate, which had been selling well in the UK since 1972, had potential in the North American market. The Workmate was redesigned in Brockville , replacing most of the cast aluminum of the UK model with steel stampings, to create the 79-001 Type 1. In spite of pessimistic warnings from the U.S. marketing group, the company spent $4.5 million tooling up to manufacture the Workmate in Brockville. Production at Brockville began in October 1974. The gamble paid off, and very quickly the Workmate became the most successful product introduced by the Canadian branch, and one of the most successful for Black & Decker overall. The market success of the Workmate was undoubtedly the main driver for the expansion of the factory from 60,000 square feet in 1968 to 225,000 in 1975. In that year the Brockville plant was reported to be "the world's fourth largest power tool plant, and the third largest factory in the B and D empire." The Brockville plant was supplying all Workmates to the North American market, as well as many non-European international markets. There were occasional glitches for Workmate production through the 1970's and 1980's due to economic turbulence. One example occurred in mid-1975, when, due to "weakening of export markets, coupled with excessive retail store inventories", Black & Decker announced a temporary layoff of 185 employees at the Brockville factory. Interestingly this shows up in my inventory of Workmate 79-001's. There is a glaring 12-week gap in my collected production dates between June 27 and September 16, 1975, when apparently Brockville produced no Workmates. It appears that this is when they imported a Workmate WM625 from Ireland and sold it as the 79-001 Type 3 to satisfy North American demand during the layoff. Other reported layoff periods through 1982 also correspond roughly to gaps in the production dates of my documented Workmate 79-001's. By the early 1980's Workmates were being manufactured in nearly a dozen countries, but those for North America were still made in Brockville. However, in The Workbench Book, Scott Landis said that when he visited the Brockville plant in 1985, the Workmate line was in the process of being packed up to move to Brazil. He saw it as a cost-cutting move, although Black & Decker's executives cited "updated positioning", "rationalized markets", and "globalization". Sure enough, by the mid-1980's Workmates sold in the U.S. were marked "Made in Brazil". For some reason, this didn't last long. The Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported in 1993 that "an independent supplier based in Pennsylvania captured the [Workmate] contract in 1990." I have a photo of a Workmate 300 79-033 with its box, where the sticker on the Workmate shows that it was made in 1992 and the box says "Copyright 1991 Made in the U.S.A. However, I also have a photo of a box for a Workmate 100 79-028 that says "Made in Slovenia, Copyright 1991". Perhaps the independent supplier in Pennsylvania was subcontracting the production of cheaper models to overseas manufacturers. This only lasted three years, until declining U.S. duties on products imported from Canada made Canadian production more attractive again. The main subject of that 1993 article in The Ottawa Citizen was that the Brockville plant had "recaptured" Workmate production, with Black & Decker announcing the hiring of an additional 100 employees and anticipated production of 500,000 Workmates per year, with 90% intended for the U.S. market. The Brockville factory closed in 1998, and 500 people lost their jobs. As you can probably guess, Workmate manufacturing moved to China. Production of UK Workmates The first Workmate was produced starting in 1968 by Mate Tools Ltd. a company founded by Ron Hickman, the Workmate's inventor. He rented a barn at an old brewery in Hoddeston, Hertfordshire, England where two production workers assembled die-cast aluminum alloy parts contracted from a local foundry. Initially he sold the Workmate direct from the factory, but by 1970 he had at least one retail contract with the London department store Gamages. By 1971, he had the major manufacturing deal he had always hoped for, with Black & Decker UK. For a short time, he continued making the original Workmate at Hoddeston, with it now relabeled as the Black & Decker Workmate WM125. Meanwhile he was developing a more versatile dual-height model. In 1972, Black & Decker introduced Hickman's improved Workmate, sold as the WM225 and WM325. This was produced at Black & Decker's own factory in Spennymoor, County Durham, England, which had opened in 1965. The Workmate turned out to be extremely popular, which prompted another redesign, creating the WM525 and WM625. By this time, the Spennymoor facility had reached capacity so in 1975 Black & Decker built a new factory in Kildare, Ireland specifically for the Workmate. The plant in Kildare closed in 1984 and Workmate production returned to Spennymoor. In 1991 Black & Decker touted the Spennymoor factory as Europe's largest power-tool plant. A report in "The Journal" (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) newspaper from 1994, indicated the Workmate was still being made at Spennymoor. In 2002, Black & Decker announced that to lower wage costs, production would be moved from Spennymoor to Usti in the Czech Republic, which was then an applicant to join the European Union. As a result, 950 jobs were cut at Spennymoor. |