Stanley Black & Decker plans $250 million in cost cuts

Stanley Black & Decker announced a $250 million cost reduction program in late October that could affect the toolmaker’s workforce in Maryland.

The company cited “external headwinds” that included new tariffs and other costs.

“As we shift to 2019, we are now preparing for the carryover effect of the 2018 headwinds,” Donald Allan Jr., Stanley’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said when the reduction plan was announced as part of the New Britain, Conn.-based company’s thirdquarter earnings on Oct. 25.

“We will continue to pass on these input cost increases to our customers as price increases,” he said in the statement. “Additionally, we are taking actions to adjust our supply chain and cost structure.”

Tim Perra, a company spokesman, declined to comment on layoffs. But the firm has not notified the state’s Depart- ment of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, a requirement for major workforce reductions and plant closings.

The company, which has about 2,300 workers in Maryland, had been growing. Third-quarter sales were up 4 percent to $3.5 billion from the year before. But earnings were down nearly 10 percent to $248 million.

Company officials announced in February that it would add 400 jobs in Baltimore County in a new Middle River facility for its global tools and storage business.

In a separate announcement in August, the company said it would expand its space in Towson, which serves as headquarters of Stanley Engineered Fastening, a division that makes fasteners for assembly work in the automotive and other industries.

The company’s power tools division is also headquartered in Towson, where the company known as Black & Decker Corp. was founded. It merged with the Connecticut-based Stanley Works in 2010.