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Delivering the power of gas/petrol without the noise, fuss and fumes, EGO outdoor power equipment revolutionized the outdoor power equipment industry and continues to deliver innovative solutions for our markets in North America, Europe and Australia. Products including riding mower, lawn mowers and handheld products, such as our hedge trimmers, chainsaws and blowers.

Have you heard of Chervon?  No, not Chevron, the gas company, Chervon the tool company?  My guess is probably not.  I have to admit, while I had heard of them in the past, I really didn’t know much about them.  Yes, Chervon is a power tool manufacturing company, but there is so much more to them.  We had a chance to visit one of their manufacturing facilities in China last year and ended up learning a ton about them, so I just wanted to share this with you so if you see certain brands around, you will have a little more background about them.  As an FYI, while they did pay for our trip, they didn’t pay us to write an article.  In fact, when they offered for us to visit them, they said they really didn’t care if we covered them at all.  The trip was just so we are more familiar with them. So I figured why should I have all the knowledge, so I decided to write up a quick article and share with you also.

Peter took the time to speak with us and tell us his story.  While the point of this article is to inform you of Chervon, I also want to talk a little bit about his background.  He grew up poor in China.  As with our society, you pretty much stay in the social class you are born in. Peter wanted something different, so that’s when he decided to attend a university and do something more.  After college he started the business from two hotel rooms with two other people and today has created a global brand called Chervon.  For him, it wasn’t business as usual.  It wasn’t about just creating a product, it was about creating a quality product.  He did things that were unheard of in China.  In the past, it was just about having machines running and creating products.  Again, he wanted quality products.  He was one of the first to actually create a testing facility to make sure the products were quality. After seeing first hand what they do and how they do it, I can say they have succeeded in creating quality products.  We saw how they test and implement new tools and it’s amazing.

In 2000, they started creating their own brand of tools and in 2014, they introduced a new line of Outdoor Power Equipment called EGO.  EGO has really taken OPE by storm.  They were the first to really produce a battery-powered OPE that performed. While they weren’t the first to market, they were the first that actually gave gas OPE a run for their money.  As I said, quality is very important to them and we saw that first hand.  It was amazing to see all the testing that went into every product.  Not only did they test each individual product after it was assembled, but they would test all the parts that went into making the final product.  It was amazing to see how clean the facilities were and how organized they were. Now I can’t talk about all the brands they work with or design things for, but let me tell you, it’s a ton.

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding any manufacturing in China, and where there’s confusion, there are also misconceptions. To clear up some of this, we wanted to understand a bit more about the history of Chervon. Chervon, based on China with facilities worldwide, manufactures power tools internationally. They have manufacturing plants in Nanjing, China as well as Stuttgart, Germany. They also have sales and marketing offices all over the US, Europe, Australia, Germany, and China.

We also got a much more personal look at a company that’s trying to do it right—both in terms of process and also the environment. That’s a lot to swallow, and so we’ve got more than one article on the company and its processes. This article introduces this China-based international power tool manufacturer and what we’ve come to understand about them.

Asking the question “Why can’t we do it this way?”, describes a lot of the history of Chervon. By doing this repeatedly, the company was able to focus on doing the work of power tool manufacturing better and more efficiently. As China began building itself up from almost nothing, Chervon paralleled this in its own development. They grew little by little as a trading business (buying and selling components and products).

Chervon decided to do its own testing. They made investments into the tools needed to test their products. That led to them being able to learn how to locate problems, but they still had to rely on the factories to solve them. Shortly after this, they began hiring teams of people to focus on R&D and to design specific machines.

By 2000, the company made many of their own products and did it better than many other manufacturers. Chervon now holds a spot as one of the top 10 manufacturers of power tools in the world. Their products are sold by over 30,000 stores in 65 countries. Chervon manufactures products for several well-known manufacturing brands as well as their own house brands: EGO and Devon. Not bad for a company that’s only been around since 1993.

Throughout the history of Chervon, the company manufactured plenty of OEM products. They also do quite a lot of ODM manufacturing as well. That includes manufacturing for popular brands sold in Lowe’s, The Home Depot, and Menards. Simultaneously, Chervon is keen to make their own brands. They have a particular interest and excitement about selling their own products to Chinese people in their own country. This actually brought about the Devon line of tools.

The level of manufacturing Chervon engages in is commensurate with Bosch, Makita, and Milwaukee. In fact, they’ve made tools for some of those companies at one point or another as an OEM manufacturer. Tool manufacturing in China is a 1.2 billion dollar market. The OPE (outdoor power equipment) sector is currently dominated by the European and American markets.

This is where Chervon has really stepped up its game in the past few years. The company has quickly gained recognition in business-to-business markets. Now, it has turned its sights on name recognition in the consumer market. Three years ago, Chervon acquired Flex, a German power tool company. In 2014 they debuted the EGO 56V cordless OPE line of tools and a strong move into outdoor power equipment.

The EGO name and brand stands for the move into OPE which is driven by engines and connecting those to applications for lawnmowers and handheld OPE power tools. As Chervon looked for growth areas, they recognized OPE had different manufactures. They weren’t making use of some of the strengths and advantages found in the cordless power tool industry. When Chervon, the largest ODM manufacturer in the power tool industry took a look at the OPE market, they saw a great opportunity. More than just the financial and manufacturing opportunities, Chervon saw an opportunity to bring about some of the environmental advantages cordless OPE technology would offer to the world in general.

The EGO brand was really Chervon’s big move into a self-branded suite of power tools. Other companies express an interest in replacing corded tools. Peter Pan, Chervon president, truly believes lithium-ion can, one day, almost entirely replace the gasoline engine. Based on how well the EGO Powerload 15-inch string trimmer and EGO Select Cut lawnmower are doing, it looks like tools once thought to require gas are well on their way to becoming battery-driven mainstream solutions.

A Chinese power tool manufacturer is moving its North American headquarters to Naperville from Michigan, taking over an empty new building developed for a Swedish manufacturer.

The company plans to bring more than 200 jobs over the next three years. It will relocate 75 workers from Grand Rapids and the Chicago suburbs of South Barrington and Geneva. Also moving there will be 37 employees who were added when Chervon completed its acquisition of Mount Prospect-based Robert Bosch Tools’ Skil and Skilsaw brands on January 1. The company also plans to hire 25 new workers this year and another 75 over the next three years.

Chervon makes power tools such as saws and drills, many of which are battery powered, with brand names including Ego and Hammerhead. It also makes outdoor equipment such as lawn mowers, blowers, trimmers and chain saws. Last year, Chervon bought the Skil tool brand from Mount Prospect-based Robert Bosch Tool.

In this infographic, the size of each company’s hand & power tool revenue is shown by circle area. Stanley Black & Decker is inside the biggest circle because it has the largest revenue from hand & power tools. Close behind is Bosch’s hand and power tool business. And so on until we reach Positec, JPW Industries and Ingersoll Rand with the smaller circles representing their smaller respective revenues.

Statista.com is a data analysis website that has a wide range of free and premium industry reports, statistics and analysis. The most interesting tidbit we found investigating hand and power tools is this:

Most of the companies (who make and who own tool brands) sales figures are available in tax forms and company annual reports. But even with that information some estimations have to be made to arrive at the tools only sales numbers. Here are some notes how we arrived at estimations for the following companies.

The Bosch annual report tells us their Consumer Goods division had 17.1 billion euros revenue (~18.5 billion USD) in 2015. The division consists of power tools (drills, jigsaws, impact screwdrivers, lawn mowers, best pressure washers etc.) and household appliances (fridges, washing machines, dryers, ovens etc.).

The household appliances portion of the Bosch Consumer Goods division was a 50:50 joint venture with Siemens until Bosch bought out Siemens for 3 billion euros (~3.25 billion USD) in late 2014. That was for the 50% share that Siemens owned, valuing the total household appliance company at 6 billion euros (6.5 billion USD). The company reported 10.5 billion euros revenue in 2013. So what’s the 2015 revenue to give us the portion that is power tools? With a growth rate of 4% yearly the revenue is 11.36 billion euros in 2015 leaving 5.74 billion euros (~$6.2B USD) as power tools revenue.

You’ll notice there is an ‘Other’ row in the above table. In that row are Home Depot, Lowe’s and Harbor Freight Tools. Since these companies don’t manufacture their own tools they were not included in the above infographic. However, they still collect substantial revenues from the global tool market with their home brand tools – Husky, Kobalt and US General, for example.

Looking at Home Depot and Lowe’s, we estimated both companies are collecting around $500M for home brands and $4.5B from selling other companies brands on their shelves. This estimate came from looking at their online stores portion of products that are home brand vs. external brands in the tools & hardware categories. When you include cost to purchase the home brand tools from the OEM and the consignment cost of the external brands’ tools, the cut they get of the total is probably around 30%. That gives Home Depot and Lowe’s somewhere close to $1.5B in global tool market revenue each. And leaves Harbor Freight around the same.

In this graphic, the outer rectangles contain logos of brands owned by the parent companies in the middle. Not all brands owned by the parent companies are in the rectangle – just the most well-known. Hilti and Makita only sell tools under their own names. Take a look. What brands owned by parent companies surprise you?

The Home Depot, Lowe’s and Harbor Freight are not original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or original design manufacturers (ODMs). They are purchasing companies who form partnerships with OEMs and ODMs (like Stanley Black & Decker) to get their tools made for them to distribute under their own brand names.

In many tool categories these big-box hardware stores simply buy from an OEM and slap their Husky, Kobalt or Drillmaster stickers on the product for sale. In other categories, they approach ODMs with specific product specifications and then work with them to get the tool built to their specs. Exactly which categories of Husky, Kobalt and Harbor Freight tools are ODM or OEM is impossible to find in their tax documents or annual reports.

Bosch’s Consumer Goods division sells power tools and household appliances. They own many brands in both industries. Their Global HQ is in Gerlingen, Germany. It is 9km west of Stuttgart.

Fortive Corp. spun out from Danaher Corp. in 2016 to become its own company. It is foremely the Tools & Measurement division of Danaher. It operates out of the Fluke Corp. headquarters in Everett, Washington.

Hilti is still a family owned company based in Schaan, Lichtenstein. They are known for their professional tools and are very popular throughout the world. Hilti has more than 23,000 employees.

Makita is a large power tool manufacturing company based in Anjo, Japan. They are well-known for their rechargeable power tools and were the first to produce a rechargeable drill. They introduced it in 1969.

Snap-on is best known as the company / tool brand that visits you at work with a van full of tools for you to buy. They started as a socket wrench company and now offer a wide-range of tools for professionals in the automotive, aviation, marine and railroad industries. The Snap-on Global HQ is in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Emerson Electric is a massive company with a sizeable tools business. They are best known for their process-automation products and services (valves, regulators, measurement & analytical instruments). The Emerson Global HQ is in Ferguson, Missouri.

Harbour Freight buys their tools direct from manufacturer and then offer them as home brands for affordable prices. Here is a selection of the brands they own and sell under:

Hitachi Koki operates as a subsidiary to Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi Koki manufactures and sells power tools and power equipment. It has HQ in Tokyo, Japan.

Textron is a diversified manufacturer in aircraft, industrial and automotive products. Within their industrial segment they make tools and equipment and sell them under the brands shown here:

The Home Depot owns two home brands in the tools category. They also exclusively sell brands of power tools and equipment such as Ryobi and WORX. Overall, they have sales of hand and power tool/equipment over $5 billion per year.

Ideal Industries is based out of Sycamore, Illinois. Ideal Industries is now well-known for their Pratt-Read, Western Forge brands and SK Tools brands, which they acquired in three separate deals in 2010. It is rumoured they paid ~$50 million for Western Forge and a fair bit less for Pratt-Read.

JPW Industries is based out of La Vergne Tennessee. It was originally known as Walter Meirer Manufacturing, Inc., and represented the tools arm of Swiss based Walter Meier AG. In 2013, Tenex Capital Management purchased Walter Meirer Manufacturing, Inc. and named it JPW Industries to represent the three main brands – JET, Powermatic and Wilton.

Who makes Ryobi tools? Techtronic Industries (TTi) is the OEM for Ryobi. TTi owns the Ryobi brand of power tools in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. They are sold exclusively at The Home Depot in United States. Ryobi Limited, which sold the power tools businesses to TTi in 2000/2001, is a Japanese company that sells power tools, die castings, hardware and printing equipment in Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa

Who makes Kobalt tools? Chervon the Chinese OEM (not Chevron the oil company) makes many of Kobalt’s power tools. In 2016, Lowe’s awarded them a vendor award in innovation for the Kobalt 24-Volt cordless power tools. Sunrise Global/Greenworks Tools is the OEM for Lowe’s Kobalt cordless 80-volt outdoor power equipment (they were awarded 2015 innovation award).

What happened to Danaher the tool maker? Danaher spun out their tool and power tool brands and OEM capability to a company called Fortive Corp. in 2016. Danaher tools are now Fortive, essentially. Fortive operates out of the Fluke HQ just north of the Boeing Everett Factory.

Where are Milwaukee tools made and who owns Milwaukee brand? Dongguan, China. In Aug-2004, TTi Group acquired two divisions (Milwaukee Electric Tools and AEG Power Tools brands) of Atlas Copco’s Industrial Technique business for a total sum of $627 million ($797 million in 2016 dollars). By 2004, all of Milwaukee’s tool production facilities had left Wisconsin for Mississippi. And in 2008, when TTi opened their massive Dongguan facility, the move for Milwaukee Electric Tools from U.S.A. to China was complete.

Who makes Snap-on tools? Snap-on makes Snap-on tools. Snap-on is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and they make tools in their vast production facilities.

Who makes Ridgid tools and who owns the brand? TTi Group makes Ridgid brand tools through a partner agreement with Emerson and their OEM subsidiary One World Technologies. They first entered into an agreement in 2003 for TTi to make Ridgid woodworking power tools (and have since furthered the partnership to other tool categories). Ridgid has been a subsidiary of Emerson Electric since 1966. The brand is targeted at plumbers and heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) trades.

When did Stanley and Black & Decker merge? Officially, Stanley Works acquired Black & Decker for an all stock deal worth $4.5 Billion ($3.5B stock and $1B debt), which was announced in Nov-2009. The “merge” was finalized in Mar-2010. At the time Stanley Works owned the popular brands Stanley, Facom, Bostitch, Proto, Mac Tools, Vidmar (and others) and Black & Decker owned Black & Decker, DeWalt, Porter-Cable, Baldwin, Emhart, Kwikset, Price Pfister (and others). The combination of the two created a tool and equipment powerhouse valued at nearly $10B.

Who makes Husky tools? Husky is a home brand of Home Depot. The tools are made by various OEMs including Stanley Black & Decker, Western Forge and Apex Tool Group.

Who owns DeWalt tools brand? DeWALT is owned and made by Stanley Black & Decker. Black & Decker owned DeWALT since 1960. In 2010, when Stanley Works and Black & Decker merged the new company, Stanley Black & Decker, became the owner of DeWALT.

Who makes and owns Craftsman tools? Craftsman tools are made in factories around the world. Depending on the tool category, it could be made in USA, Mexico, India, Honduras, Japan, Taiwan, China, Germany or France. Many manufacturing companies have been contracted to make different tools for Craftsman over the years. These include: TTi Group, Stanley, Apex Tool Group, Western Forge, Easco, Danaher and Pratt-Read. Sears, the creator of the Craftsman brand, never made Craftsman tools – they owned the brand. In 2016, Sears sold the brand to Stanley Black & Decker for $900 million. With the sale, it is more than likely all manufacturing of Craftsman Tools moving forward will be done in Stanley Black & Decker manufacturing plants.

CHERVON started as an international trading company in 1993. Through closely partnering, cooperating and relentless pursuing of distinguished service, CHERVON earned its excellent reputation and built a solid foundation for its future development in the worldwide power tool industry.

In year 1999, CHERVON started to setup our own manufacturing system and became a power tool manufacturer. Afterwards, CHERVON experienced the fastest growth in history and very soon became one of the biggest power tool manufacturers in China.

Starting from 2006, CHERVON has made a very important strategic decision of vertical integration of CHERVON Industry and invested heavily on the core parts manufacture and production system, which further largely improved our product quality level and helped CHERVON not only became the largest power tools manufacturer but also the highest quality manufacturer in China. The R&D Center is established in 2007, further enhanced our capability of research and innovation.

Products produced by CHERVON fall into five categories: corded portable power tools, cordless portable power tools, bench-top power tools, garden power tools and electronic/laser tools. CHERVON now has the resources and abilities to offer excellent complete solutions to the most demanding customers around the world.

CHERVON introduced DEVON brand industrial power tools for the Chinese domestic market in 2007. DEVON earned immediate recognition among the industrial users for its high efficiency and high quality products and excellent customer services and soon became one of the top four power tool brands in China.

SKIL Power Tools is a brand of electric power tools and accessories located in Naperville, Illinois, United States.Chervon, a company based in Nanjing, China.

The company now focuses more on the do-it-yourself consumer, but at one time made professional construction-grade power tools, which are now being sold under their subsidiary, SKILSAW.

Skil products include circular saws, cordless drill/drivers, cordless screw drivers, cordless tackers, cordless sealant guns, belt sanders, random orbit sanders, multi-sanders, angle grinders, hammers, drills, mixers, jig saws, lasers and measuring tools, reciprocating saws, routers, and planers.

In the early 1920s, Edmond Michel, a French immigrant in New Orleans with a penchant for tinkering and inventing, watched a group of farmers hack away at sugar cane with large machetes. After observing the painstaking labor the workers went through, Michel began experimenting with how to mechanize the Machete. In 1923, Michel created a motorized machete, which had a 6-inch (150 mm) saw-blade mounted on carved wooden frame and powered with a motor taken from a malted milk mixer – the first electric handsaw.

After forming the company, six production models were made at $1000 each. Michel went to the new Atlantic City"s Million Dollar Boardwalk to demonstrate the new tools, where the first portable electric saw was purchased for $160 by the Piers’ developer.

In the 1950s, the company changed its name to the Skil Corporation. Skilsaw remained the brand name used for the company"s products. European sales followed a few years later, by which time Skil had entered the consumer market. By 1959 it had a full and successful range of DIY tools.

Skil broke into the Australian market in the early 1960s, when they acquired the Australian company Sher Powertools, which was a good quality tool, and sold at a premium price intended to compete with the European brands of Wolf and Desoutter which were well established fine quality brands of tools at the time.

In the 1970s onwards, Skil constructed a network of factories, service centers and sales offices all around the world, its name becoming synonymous with power tools. Skil still has its European head office in Breda. All manufacturing of power tools for the European market is outsourced, mainly in China. Pre-development, Logisitics, Sales, Marketing and Finance are among the activities of the Dutch head office.

Emerson Electric acquired Skil Corporation on March 23, 1979. Under new ownership, Skil continued to grow. In late 1979, Skil redesigned many of its tools to have heavy-duty plastic, double-insulated housings. In 1982, the company embarked on a program to become the most successful power tool company in America by investing heavily in new manufacturing and quality-control systems.

On August 23, 2016, Chervon (HK) Ltd., a power tool manufacturer based in Nanjing, China, agreed to acquire the SKIL brand from the Bosch Power Tools division, which gave them control over the SKIL businesses in both North America and the European market.

“Skil, the power tool company.” Chilton’s Hardware Age. May 1988: page 58 (Accessed online through GaleGroup.com on August 2, 2012 (Subscription required))

“SKIL did a great job with [the 10" Dual Bevel Sliding Miter Saw]. I love how smooth it operates, the power of the motor, and the capacity it offers.”

At Chervon, we are developing better tools for a better world. Professionals and homeowners rely on our products to get the job done. Through our brands such as FLEX, EGO, SKIL, and KOBALT, we design and manufacture a wide range of power tools and outdoor power equipment. We are a fast-growing company that is constantly expanding our portfolio and aim to be one of the top 5 manufacturers of power tools in the world.

We are constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve. We know that closely understanding our users is the best way to develop products that deliver true solutions. Through user research, we strive to better understand what our users need to produce the next generation of power tool products.

To support our growing team and enhance our capabilities in user-focused design, we are looking for an experienced User Experience Researcher with great communication and people skills to drive user research of our power tool products. You will speak with our customers, generate insights, and give direct input to the product development teams. Working alongside product managers, industrial designers, and engineers, you will drive the user research activities that ultimately lead to new and improved products in the marketplace. Due to the nature of collaboration with team members on a regular basis, this role is located in Naperville, IL. This is an active role that spends a lot of time away from the desk, getting out there to use power tools and speak with users.

Develop hands-on expertise in the power tool product space by using and studying our products, competitor products, market trends, and primary research

You may have read Rob Johnstone’s eZine editorial a couple of issues ago announcing that SKIL® Power Tools will soon be owned by Chervon. Maybe then you wondered, who’s Chervon?

It’s a good question. All of us avid power tools users know the big brand names and their colors — yellow, orange, green, blue, teal, red, gray, black and green. We toss their names around with our shop buddies, on the jobsite and in online forums as we discuss who makes “the best this or that” for all manner of tools these days. And that can be lively debate almost all the time, because power tools are constantly changing and improving, especially on the cordless tool front.

Chervon designs and manufactures a wide range of tools, including handheld portable power tools, stationary benchtop tools, laser and electronic tools, cordless lawn and garden equipment and accessories. In fact, it’s one of the top 10 largest tool companies in the world, with offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. And yet, I’ll bet most of us don’t know Chervon by name.

Aside from cordless tools, Chervon builds professional grade miter saws, band saws and tile saws for many of the largest professional and private label brands in the marketplace, Turoff says.

“OEMs take plans from another brand and build to order, and it’s how our business started,” Turoff explains. As one example, Chervon has been servicing Bosch Power Tools for 14 years as one of its OEMs. The two companies also work collaboratively: in 2007, Bosch and Chervon formed a joint venture called Bovon Power Tools that develops power tools for the Asian market.

Over the years, Chervon has acquired other power tool labels as well, including the Flex and Calmdura brands in Europe. Soon, SKIL Power Tools will be added to this portfolio.