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Stanley Works Sets Sail for Bermuda
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Business New Haven
2/18/2002
By: BNH
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NEW BRITAIN - Stanley Works (NYSE: SWK), the 159-year-old company known for the hammers and other tools it manufactures, is going offshore. The company reported on February 8 that later this year it will incorporate in Bermuda, the tax-haven British crown colony.
Stanley Works stressed it is not abandoning New Britain, Connecticut, where it has been an institution since the company was founded in 1843 by Frederick T. Stanley. Under the Bermuda plan, which is subject to shareholder approval, corporate operations will continue to be managed from Connecticut.
However, The Stanley Works Ltd., a newly formed Bermuda corporation, will become the parent company of Stanley Works later this year.
So confident is the company that the reincorporation will help its finances, after a year in which it closed plants and laid off nearly 1,000 workers, that it raised its estimates for 2002 earnings.
In late January, Stanley Works reported a decline in fourth-quarter earnings, weighed down by restructuring and other charges. It recorded $54 million in restructuring and asset impairment charges in the quarter, much of it related to layoffs and plant closures. Stanley Works said it cut 900 jobs, which was approximately twice its earlier estimate.
The Stanley Works started as a small company that manufactured hinges, bolts and other door hardware in a one-story wooden building in New Britain. By the 1870s Stanley had begun exporting and shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the business established its first production facilities outside the U.S. Stanley's 2001 sales exceeded $2.62 billion and it has a global presence with 114 manufacturing and distribution facilities around the world.
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