New Britain, once the hub of the country’s hand tools and power tools industry, will lose its last remaining hardware factory later this year when Stanley Black & Decker’s plant on Myrtle Street shuts down.
The company will keep roughly 400 workers at its corporate headquarters in the city, but an estimated 200 jobs at the Hand Tools Division plant will be ended.
“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. These products are quickly becoming obsolete in the markets we serve,” company spokeswoman Debora Raymond said in a written statement.
Stanley’s precision tape measures have a reputation for being more accurate than less expensive imported versions, but at least by some accounts many homeowners have been switching from metal tape measures to digital ones.
As of Thursday afternoon the company had not filed a WARN notice with the state, a mandatory action for businesses closing a plant with more than 50 employees.
The overwhelming majority of Stanley’s once-sprawling factory complex along Myrtle Street was demolished about nine years ago. In its heyday, the Stanley Works — the predecessor company to Stanley Black & Decker — was part of the nation’s hardware hub in New Britain, where more than a dozen factories employed tens of thousands of workers.
Marquee names like Stanley Works, Fafnir Bearings, P.F. Corbin, New Britain Machine and Landers, Frary & Clark made the city famous, earning it the nicknames Hardware City and Hard-Hittin’ New Britain. Some of those companies simply closed as the Industrial Era wound down, while others were bought by out-of-state investors and relocated manufacturing to the South or out of the country altogether.
Recently, Stanley has been closing smaller U.S. plants. It shut down two in Texas and South Carolina in 2023, followed by a North Carolina facility in 2024. Closing a Verona, Miss. plant this spring is expected to cost 600 jobs.
Stanley on Thursday did not release a specific timetable for ending operations at the Hand Tools Divsion.
“We are 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,” Raymond wrote.
Locally, political leaders from both parties cited the news in lambasting the other side. Former Mayor Erin Stewart, a Republican running for governor, blamed Gov. Ned Lamont’s tax policies.
“How many times are we going to see this movie? And how many times are we going to run through the litany of reasons these legacy employers — who have been part of our identity as Nutmeggers — are choosing to leave Connecticut,” she asked.
“There’s only so long any enterprise can exist with the highest cost of living, the highest cost of energy, the highest cost of doing business, and utter hostility from the state capitol before they have to make the heartbreaking decision to leave or close their doors,” Stewart said.
Recently elected Mayor Bobby Sanchez, a Democrat, said blame rests with President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“This decision reflects broader instability in the national and global economic environment. Ongoing uncertainty at the federal level, including shifting trade policies and tariffs that have driven up material and production costs, continues to impact manufacturers and global businesses in real and consequential ways,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez called Stanley’s departure “disappointing,” particularly in light of its more than 180-year history in the city.
“For generations, Stanley Works has been part of the fabric of our city, providing good-paying jobs, supporting families, and helping build New Britain’s proud reputation as the ‘Hardware City,’ ” he said. “New Britain has reinvented itself before and we will do so again.”