Ideal Industries

Ideal Industries

Company type	Privately owned
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1916 in Chicago, Illinois
Founder	J. Walter Becker
Headquarters	Sycamore, Illinois
Key people	Meghan Juday Chairman Steve Henn CEO Vicki Slomka SVP Kevin Lamb CFO
Products	Connectors, hand tools, testers, meters
Number of employees	1,225[1]
Website	www.idealindustries.com

Ideal Industries is an American company that produces connectors, hand tools, testers, and meters for the electrical and telecommunications industries.^[2]

The company manufactures many of its products in the United States.^[3] It also owns Western Forge and Pratt-Read, the largest– and second-largest American-made producers of screwdrivers respectively at the time of their acquisitions.^[4]

It is a competitor to Klein Tools, and its tools are sold at Lowe's and Ace Hardware stores as well as many independent distributors.^[5]

History

Ideal was founded in 1916 by J. Walter Becker as the Ideal Commutator Dresser Company in Chicago, Illinois, manufacturing commutator dresser stones.^[6] In 1924, Becker relocated the company to its current location in Sycamore, Illinois.^[7] By 1949, it had become the United States' leading producer of wire nuts.^[8]

In 2010, Ideal acquired three American hand tool manufacturers: Western Forge in January,^[9][10] Pratt-Read in March,^[11][12] and SK Hand Tools in August.^[13][14][15]

Gallery

• 
  Speed screwdrivers.
• 
  Multi-bit screwdriver and F connector tool.
• 
  A punchdown tool.
• 
  A wire stripper.
• 
  A 75' steel fish tape.

IDEAL Subsidiaries

• Anderson Power Products
• Cree Lighting (formerly a segment of Wolfspeed)
• Enatel
• Lacelok
• Power Puck

• Pratt-Read Tools

Former Subsidiaries

• CMD^[16]
• Casella^[17]
• SK Hand Tools^[18]
• Western Forge^[19]

References

1. Company profile dnb.com
2. Ideal Industries. "About Us". Archived from the original on 2010-03-05. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
3. McCrea, Bridget (2012-10-24). "Tapping into the power of Made in the USA". The Electrical Distributor Magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-09-13. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
4. Varnon, Rob (2010-06-25). "Workers hope for aid in closing". The Advocate. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
5. Murphy, H. Lee (1996-07-08). "Pliers Poker". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
6. Ideal Industries. "Company History". Archived from the original on 2010-05-19. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
7. Ideal Industries. "Recruiting brochure" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-07. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
8. "Wire Nuts for Radio City". Kiplinger's Personal Finance. December 1949. p. 36.
9. Heilman, Wayne (2010-01-04). "Western Forge to be sold to Ideal Industries". The Gazette. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
10. Heilman, Wayne (2010-01-05). "New owners to pump millions into Western Forge". The Gazette. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
11. "IDEAL Acquires Tool Manufacturer Pratt-Read" (Press release). Ideal Industries. 2010-03-22. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
12. "Ideal Industries Acquires Pratt-Read to Add Hand-Tool Lines and Made-in-U.S. Capacity". Electrical Marketing. 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
13. Yue, Lorene (2010-08-23). "SK Hand Tool assets sold to Ideal Industries". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2010-10-06.
14. "IDEAL Acquires Premier Tool Manufacturer SK Hand Tools" (Press release). Ideal Industries. 2010-08-23. Archived from the original on 2010-09-23. Retrieved 2010-10-06.
15. Deutsch, Stuart (2010-08-23). "It's Official – Ideal Industries Purchases SK Hand Tools!". ToolGuyd. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
16. "IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. Announces Divestiture of CMD Limited".
17. "IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. Announces Divestiture of Casella".
18. "SK Professional Tools Purchased by Great Star Tools".
19. "Western Forge closing its doors in Colorado Springs". 20 February 2020.