Stanley Black & Decker to close Hampstead factory, lay off 55 workers

SWK -1.45%

Underperforming locations have become a problem across multiple sectors, including supermarkets, apparel retailers and drugstore chains, as companies move to close stores and reduce the strain on liquidity.

Restaurants have also shut down weaker locations to limit losses, and manufacturers are now taking similar steps with underperforming facilities.

Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (NYSE: SWK) plans to close its underperforming Hampstead, Maryland, factory and lay off 55 workers, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed with the Maryland Department of Labor on Aug. 19. The 1988 federal WARN law generally requires employers with 100 or more workers to provide 60 days’ advance notice of plant closings and mass layoffs, and such state filings are a public early signal of planned job cuts.

Factory closure and layoffs

According to the WARN notice, layoffs at the factory are scheduled to begin on Oct. 23, 2026, and will continue until the facility closes on March 26, 2027.

"Over the past few years, we have seen a steady decline in volume in the materials produced at our Hampstead, Maryland, manufacturing facility," Stanley Black & Decker spokesperson Debora Raymond told the Baltimore Sun.

"Due to this we are announcing our intent to close the site. We are focused on providing a smooth transition to impacted employees, including options for employment at other Stanley Black & Decker U.S. facilities and operations for salaried employees, in addition to severance, and job placement support services for both salaried and hourly employees," Raymond said.

The company’s history dates to 1843, when Frederick T. Stanley co-founded Stanley Bolt Manufactory and later founded The Stanley Works in 1852.

Black & Decker was founded in Baltimore in 1910 by S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker as a small machine shop that made machines for producing milk bottle caps and for candy dipping, according to the Black & Decker website.

Company history in Maryland

Black & Decker patented a handheld electric drill in 1917 and opened a large-scale manufacturing facility in Towson, Maryland, in 1929.

Stanley and Black & Decker completed their merger in 2010 to form Stanley Black & Decker. According to VerityRank, the company is the world’s largest tool company, with $15.13 billion in revenue in 2025. Its brand portfolio includes DeWalt, Craftsman and Black+Decker tools.

Before the merger, Black & Decker built the Hampstead factory in 1951 to manufacture power tools. By 1969, the plant had expanded to 374 acres and included a 30-acre parking lot for its 3,800 employees.

The company closed the Towson facility in 1965, although it remained Black & Decker’s headquarters.

The Hampstead plant employed 2,000 workers in the 1970s, but in December 1985 the company shut down power tool manufacturing there after efforts to modernize the facility failed. The site then became the East Coast’s principal distribution center.

Sale of the site

Stanley Black & Decker said the Hampstead factory’s primary use before the closure announcement was powdered metal manufacturing, along with limited warehousing and distribution. Powdered metal manufacturing forms components by compacting and heating metal powders rather than machining or casting them.

The company sold the Hampstead facility to AG/GFI Hampstead Inc. for $2.7 million in 1999, but Black & Decker kept a small distribution facility on the site and remained responsible for environmental issues tied to its historic operations. The planned closure would end the company’s remaining operations at a site Black & Decker has occupied since 1951.

Stanley Black & Decker’s closure comes as other businesses have also reduced their footprint at underperforming locations, including Walgreens, which is closing about 100 stores in 2026; Raley’s, which is closing seven locations in California and Nevada in 2026 and 2027; and Old Navy, an affiliate of The Gap, which is closing stores in New York and Pennsylvania in the first half of 2026.

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This story was originally published by TheStreet on Aug. 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.