Craftsman Set For Relaunch

Soon after Stanley Black & Decker bought the well-known Craftsman brand from Sears Holdings last year, it embarked on what it says is a ground-up remake of the tool line, hoping to revitalize a name that had languished alongside the struggling department store. Stanley has spent the past 18 months designing and making a new line of Craftsman products, the first 1,200 of which were unveiled Thursday during a launch event in the “Craftsmen Garage” at a business park in Middle River, Md. The “garage” is being used to “bring Craftsman to life, here in Baltimore,” said Jeff Doehne, the general manager of the Craftsman brand, which will be managed out of the Towson, Md., headquarters of Stanley’s power tools and storage divisions. The company says its designers aimed to keep the tools durable and affordable while making them more efficient and compatible with new technology.