Today I learned that Gearwrench and their parent company, Apex Tool Group, downsized their USA headquarters.
A few months ago I posted about a Gearwrench diagnostic tool – see This Gearwrench Auto Diagnostics Tablet Looks to Have it All.
I started testing it, and the battery charging behavior was wonky. I tried it again later. It still wouldn’t charge beyond 57%.
I contacted Gearwrench. They sent me an address to send it back to.
I had entered my busy season and didn’t get around to it. When I did finally get around to it, I paid for a shipping label and sent the tablet back.
This is why I don’t do a lot of ToolGuyd giveaways unless I can just order it from online – it takes me forever to get boxes out. I’ve always been terrible about outbound packages.
What happened? UPS sent the package right back to me. Of course UPS charged me double for that. Thanks for that.
What did they mean by the sticker saying the “receiver moved?”
That’s on me for not shipping it back immediately. But how was I supposed to know? Tool brands generally don’t get up and move their headquarters around.
I finally got around to researching this.
Apparently Gearwrench and Apex Tool Group left their headquarters and moved into a suite in an office building.
The company had been plagued by debt and changed hands late last year – see Apex Tool Group (Crescent, Gearwrench) has Been Sold.
Details are still sparse, but from what I read ATG and their brands – most notably Crescent and Gearwrench – were sold (surrendered?) to a group of companies they owed money to in what sounded a lot like a foreclosure arrangement.
I was worried, but luckily they didn’t close their HQ, they just moved and from what I can tell downsized a bit.
I couldn’t find much about their new headquarters either, only that it’s in building 4 suite 600 in a nearby corporate office center.
On the tool side of things, I keep hoping they turn things around. Crescent and Gearwrench social content is now full of memes and gimmicks. I haven’t seen either brand announce new products in ages. With both brands now headquartered in the middle of an office building, where are they even designing and testing things out?
Maybe ATG’s new private equity firm owners will do a better job investing and growing the brands than their previous private equity owners.
But moving their headquarters into an office building? I guess it was a cost-cutting move, which I’d think is a better move than cutting jobs or reducing product quality [further?].
