Milwaukee Tool building manufacturing plant
Milwaukee Tool is planning to build a new $26 million manufacturing plant in West Bend — the latest in a series of expansions for the company that are adding hundreds of jobs in the Milwaukee area.
The plant will manufacture hand tools for professional electricians and utility linemen, the company said in a statement released Monday.
“With a focus on core users in the electrical, plumbing and mechanical trades, our strategy for hand tools from the beginning has been to disrupt the market with superior performance, quality, and user-driven feature sets,” Tim Albrecht, president of hand tools for Milwaukee Tool, said in the statement.
“As we continue with that strategy, we are thrilled to invest in state-of-theart technology and equipment, and a skilled labor force — right in the heart of Wisconsin — to deliver the next wave of hand tool innovation to the industry.”
Milwaukee Tool is planning to break ground in April on 20 acres in West Bend.
The site is part of 216 acres along River Road, north of County Highway NN, being developed by the city of West Bend as a new industrial park.
The first phase of construction on the
Milwaukee Tool project will include a 75,000-square-foot building. It could eventually be expanded to 225,000 square feet.
In addition, the company said it has right of first refusal to purchase another 20 acres for future expansion. That site would accommodate another 225,000square-foot building.
Milwaukee Tool said its new plant will lead to “the creation of 50 highly skilled manufacturing jobs initially, with plans to hire 100 by the end of 2025.”
Both the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the Milwaukee 7 regional economic development organization have been partners in supporting Milwaukee Tool’s growth plans, according to the statement.
“We are thrilled that Milwaukee Tool is making yet another significant investment in Wisconsin,” said WEDC Secretary & CEO Missy Hughes.
“We are especially pleased that the company is expanding its manufacturing footprint, which will create opportunities not only for the skilled workers employed by the company in West Bend, but for scores of suppliers around the state.”
“...The Milwaukee Tool brand carries our regional name around the world,” M7 Vice President Jim Paetsch said in the statement.
‘Billion dollar brand’
The West Bend project marks Milwaukee Tool’s latest expansion.
The company in December announced plans to create 770 jobs by 2025 in multiple buildings at Woodland Prime business park, in Menomonee Falls.
The first building, an existing 52,744square-foot, two-story office building, W127-N7564 Flint Drive, is being remodeled. Also, construction is to start in spring on a two-story, 240,000-squarefoot building.
The Woodland Prime buildings will be a secondary corporate campus for Milwaukee Tool. The buildings on the 65-acre site could eventually total 2.5 million square feet.
Meanwhile, the company is finishing the latest expansion of its Brookfield headquarters campus: a three-story, 116,300-square-foot global new product development center at 12930 W. Lisbon Road.
Milwaukee Tool in November 2017 completed a four-story, 207,000square-foot addition to its headquarters, 13135 W. Lisbon Road.
The company has grown employment at its Brookfield headquarters complex from just over 300 jobs in 2011 to over 1,400 in 2019.
That growth came after Milwaukee Tool was sold in 2005 to Hong Kongbased Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd.
Techtronic had revenue of more than $7 billion in 2018, according to the company’s website.
Techtronic decribes Milwaukee Tool as “a billion dollar worldwide brand annually.”
Milwaukee Tool has added headquarters jobs in departments such as research and development, packaging design, marketing, sales and training.
Milwaukee Tool also operates Empire Level, in Mukwonago, and Imperial Blades, in Sun Prairie, and has factories in Mississippi, Germany and China.
Techtronic’s other brands that are either licensed or wholly owned include Ryobi, Hoover, Dirt Devil, Homelite and Oreck.
Techtronic Industries in 2019 became one of the 50 companies that make up the Hang Seng Index, which tracks the performance of the Hong Kong stock market.
Techtronic employs more than
29,000 people worldwide.
Contact Joe Taschler at (414) 2242554 or jtaschler@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeTaschler or Facebook at facebook.com/joe.taschler.1.