Snap-on Industrial Brands, historically J.H. Williams Tool Group, is a division of Americanhand tool manufacturer Snap-on that makes and distributes tools to industrial markets. In addition to the Williams brand from which it originated, the group includes Bahco and CDI Torque Products.[1]
History
In 1882, James Harvey Williams and Matthew Diamond founded Williams & Diamond in Flushing, Queens, a drop forging business.[2] The business was relocated to Brooklyn in 1884 and took the name J.H. Williams & Co in 1887. The company was one of the first to offer mass-produced drop-forged hand tools.[3] A second factory was opened in Buffalo, New York in 1914, now the site of General Motors' Tonawanda Engine plant.[4]
The company was acquired by Snap-on in 1993.[citation needed] In 2011 it was officially renamed Snap-on Industrial Brands.[5]