Stanley Black and Decker and Lista North America, major players in the industrial storage and workspace market, have announced that they will be merging. More specifically, Stanley has acquired Lista NA and will be creating a new partnership that also includes its Vidmar storage division.
Stanley Vidmar and Lista will be establish a newly formed Storage Workspace Solutions group within Stanley Black & Decker. Both companies have announced that business will continue as usual in the short term.
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Moving forward, it is said that the merger will allow for joint product development, expanded product offerings, and increased sales support.
Stanley Vidmar Press Release
Lista Press Release
I have to say, this is surprising, but not shocking news. Although Lista and Stanley Vidmar occasionally vie for the same customers, both offer unique products that make them stronger together.
After Stanley and Black and Decker merged, there was a bit of internal reorganization, but both company’s brands maintained their respective identities. Without a doubt, we will continue to see both Vidmar and Lista independently branded products in the future.
It will be interesting to see how this all develops and if it will affect other Stanley brands. For example, perhaps Lista’s technician mobile tool boxes will grow in popularity if promoted alongside Mac tool storage products. Time will tell.
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fred
Now all Stanley has to do is to buy Durham (as in Rotabin) and they will have our entire business for storage solutions. We use all 3 products – Vidmar in one shop and Lista in another – with Rotabins in both.
Al
“the merger will allow for joint product development, expanded product offerings, and increased sales support.”
Yea, right.
This mega merge will create less competitive market and will allow the new larger company to maximize their profit by producing fewer or lesser quality goods and selling them at higher prices.
I used to think that creating a monopoly was against the law.
Stuart
Fred, oh no, don’t give them any ideas! But in all seriousness, I don’t think that acquiring Durham would offer Stanley any real benefits. Akro-Mils, maybe, but not really.
Al, I changed that to “it is said that the merger will allow…”. While there is a bit of marketing fluff in there (I did draw it out from the press releases), I can definitely see them doing joint development work in the future.
As far as competition goes, there is still much competition in the mobile toolbox market, and Lyon still poses some competition cross-spectrum. While it might be considered a “mega merger,” I certainly wouldn’t call it a monopoly. Lista and Vidmar are both excellent brands, but their products are not directly compatible. Take Stanley Proto and Mac as an example of how things might work with Lista and Vidmar.