Apex Tool Group
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About Apex Tool Group
Apex Tool Group (ATG) is one of the largest manufacturers of professional hand and power tools in the world, serving the industrial, vehicle service and assembly, aerospace, electronics, construction, and serious DIY markets.
Our portfolio of over 30 innovative brands includes many category leaders, such as SATA®, GearWrench®, Weller®, Wiss®, Lufkin®, Cleco®, and Crescent®. ATG also manufactures select, premier private-label mechanics tools. Across the board, our tools stand for quality, innovation, and value. Known for solving seemingly impossible problems, they are intuitive and simple to use, yet indispensable.
ATG works collaboratively with distributors, retailers, and large customers across the globe to make sure end users have the tools they need to solve real-world problems. Our unique category management approach provides customers with end-user data, market research, and voice of customer insight, which helps drive inventory, display, and promotion decisions. Plus, our truly global footprint enables us to serve customers’ needs in a way we couldn’t if we were a regional player.
About Crescent
Crescent is a premier hand tool brand from Apex Tool Group, one of the largest hand tool manufacturers in the world. The brand is often associated with its most famous product, the Crescent® brand adjustable wrench.
In 1907, a Swedish immigrant and inventor Karl Peterson founded the Crescent Tool Company. Soon after that, he introduced America's first open-end adjustable wrench, a revolutionary concept that replaced an entire set of dedicated-size wrenches. The Crescent® adjustable wrench was extremely successful. It was widely imitated but never duplicated.
The Crescent adjustable wrench became one of the most essential tools in the toolbox of generations of professional tradesmen – well-known and well-regarded as an iconic hand tool that was proven and reliable. In fact, after his historic solo transatlantic flight in 1927, Charles Lindbergh was quoted saying he carried only “gasoline, sandwiches, a bottle of water and a Crescent wrench and pliers.” In the years that followed, Crescent introduced many improvements, making its wrenches lighter, stronger, and more versatile. The brand grew to include many more sizes and types of adjustable wrenches, plus a wide selection of pliers, mechanics' hand tools, and toolsets.
In 2017, the Crescent brand expanded once again to include four other famous brands from Apex Tool Group. Lufkin, Wiss, Nicholson, and H.K. Porter – now called Crescent | Lufkin®, Crescent | Wiss®, Crescent | Nicholson®, and Crescent | H.K. Porter® – became supporting brands under Crescent. This gave professional tradespeople over 2,600 quality tools they could count on to produce professional results … all with the trusted Crescent name.
In 2018, the Crescent brand expanded once more to include the innovative, weather-resistant, and nearly indestructible JOBOX brand onsite storage, truck storage, and UL-approved safety storage products now called Crescent | JOBOX®.
Today, professional tradespeople can select from Crescent® wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, mechanics hand tools, and toolsets, Crescent | Lufkin® measuring tools, Crescent | Wiss® scissors and snips, Crescent | Nicholson® files and saws, Crescent | H.K. Porter® heavy-duty cutting tools and Crescent | JOBOX® storage products. A new generation of tradespeople is looking for tools that will help them produce professional results and a new, stronger Crescent is there to answer that call.
With a history of over 100 years of performance, quality, and innovation, Crescent® is holding true to the fundamentals that have made it one of the most trusted names in hand tools and storage worldwide. Crescent is committed to consistently delivering products that exceed customer expectations for quality, durability, performance, and value.
About Crescent | Lufkin®
The E. T. Lufkin Board and Log Rule Manufacturing Company started in Cleveland, Ohio in 1869 to serve the logging industry. Lufkin produced rules of superior quality, using only the best materials, and the company flourished, gaining a substantial following of loyal customers. The company soon moved to Saginaw, Michigan, which at the time was the center of the logging industry as settlement of the young United States moved relentlessly westward.
Innovation is the key to success for every enterprise, and that was certainly the case for Lufkin, when, in 1890, Lufkin introduced the first steel measuring tape produced in the United States. Numerous innovative products were introduced in the following years, the most successful being the folding wooden rule. The folding rule remained the dominant measuring tool for tradespeople of all types until the 1940s when Lufkin, along with several other manufacturers, made the retractable tape measure a reality.
Today, as Crescent Lufkin®, the brand is a market leader for measuring products from Apex Tool Group, one of the largest hand tool manufacturers in the world. The extensive Crescent Lufkin line of products includes power tapes, rules, long tapes, oil gauging tapes, measuring wheels, and one of the widest selections of special-purpose tapes and rules available for commercial and industrial use. Crescent Lufkin measuring products are among the more than 2,600 quality hand tool products offered under the Crescent name – products professional tradespeople know they can count on to get the job done right.
About Crescent | Wiss®
In 1847, a thirty-year-old cutler and gunsmith Jacob Wiss immigrated to the United States from Switzerland. He opened a small shop in Newark, New Jersey, forging surgical instruments and shears. His firm prospered, and during the American Civil War, Wiss made scissors for Union Army medical units and shears to cut uniforms.
The company continued to grow, expanding its product offering to include several lines of shears and scissors, trimmers, pruning shears, and tin snips. Wiss replaced any broken product, regardless of the reason for the damage, and a loyal customer following developed. By 1914, Wiss had become the world's largest producer of shears and scissors, with a production of more than two million pairs per year.
During World War II, products were converted to military applications: nail scissors proved ideal for the manufacture of precision radar and radio systems, metal snips were used for building aircraft, and surgical scissors went to hospitals on every front. As sales reverted to civilian markets after the war, Wiss compound action “aviation snips,” a key tool for cutting aircraft sheet metal during the war years, became a best seller. The brand has remained the undisputed market leader in aviation snips for over 60 years, driven by two simple principles: performance and durability.
Today, as Crescent Wiss®, the brand is a market leader for cutting products from Apex Tool Group, one of the largest hand tool manufacturers in the world. The extensive Crescent Wiss line of products includes scissors, snips, and specialty trade tools. Crescent Wiss cutting products are among the more than 2,600 quality hand tool products offered under the Crescent name – products professional tradespeople know they can count on to get the job done right.