Stanley Black and Decker to increase localisation

Stanley Black and Decker (SBD) is focussing on localisation and commitment to acquiring companies as its way forward for in India, said a top official of the company while launching the Stanley brand of power tools on Tuesday.

"SBD India has seen an encouraging growth rate. With this launch, we now become a complete solutions provider. We occupy the second position in tools and storage in India," said president and COO James M. Loree.

"The next five years are going to be critical and will set the pace for the company as we plan on developing India as an export hub, increase localisation to 50 percent and also double the headcount," he added..

The company is keen on acquiring companies in India with talks already in final stages, Loree said without divulging further details.

The new range of products launched under the Stanley brand include tools for metal working, concrete working, wood working and cordless tools like angle grinders, chopsaws, rotary hammers, demolition hammers, tile cutters, planers, heat guns, and blowers among others.

SBD plans to manufacture these products locally in India in the future.

The company which also provides solutions in storage, electronic security and fastening systems has focused on increasing its revenue in emerging markets from 17 percent to 20 percent.

Total sales from the global emerging markets amounted to $1.9 billion for the period 2012 to 2014, however the sales figures clocked in India were not revealed. Loree said that SBD's Indian business is less than one percent of its global business.

Emerging markets represent growth opportunity as majority of the global economic output before 2020 comes from fast growing economies, said president, global emerging markets, Jaime A. Ramirez, citing metrics sourced from Oxford Economics and A. T. Kearney and Management Estimates.

SBD has three manufacturing plants in India and its Indian headquarters is in Bengaluru. It opened India technical centre in Pune in 2014.

The $11 billion company headquartered in New Britain in the US state of Connecticut has plans to grow three times in India in the next five years to become the number one power tools player.