Ratcheting It Up In Southington
Given the nearly constant layer of snow that has blanketed Central Connecticut the last few weeks, it’s easy to forget how nice springtime in New England can be, particularly for gardeners.
Ah, the flower blossoms, sunshine, the leaves in the trees and newly budded branches — such is the reward awaiting Nutmeggers for winning another endurance match with the steadily habited winter.
It was just such a time about 50 years ago that the ratchet cut pruner was born in Southington, a device beloved by gardeners for the ease it allows in trimming branches. It was created in the 1960s by Steuart Florian, owner of the American Standard Co. machine shop, who one early spring day watched his wife struggle with a pair of gardening clippers.
Thus was Florian Tools born.
You’ve probably seen one, or at least a knock-off, of Florian’s pruners. These handheld devices use simple metal levers and springs to multiply the force in a user’s hand by nearly 700 percent, making cutting branches an easy task, even for the weak-handed.
Three generations later, Steuart’s son, Nathaniel, CEO, and his grandson Sean, president, still run the business that bears the family name. They ship roughly 70,000 pruners each year, slightly more than half of which are sold under the Florian Tools name.
Don’t look for them in big box stores; Florian sells exclusively over the Internet, or in high-end nurseries. Over the years, it’s also added a bevy of tools based on the original design — including plastic-handled versions of the pruner, and “loppers,” which are basically oversized pruners used for trimming thicker branches.
“We had tried marketing these through a mail-order catalog for a while but that wasn’t as profitable,” said Sean Florian. “We stick to expos and the Internet and that’s been great for us.”
American Made
The parts of the tools are made entirely in the United States. Most are machined on the bottom floor of 157 Water St., the company’s home since the late 1980s, and one of the last bastions of serious manufacturing activity in the area surrounding the former Ideal Forging factory.
While some of the work is farmed out — nearby Vanguard Plastics Corp., for instance, which makes the injection molds for the tools — most of the work is done in the United States, chiefly by the 24 machinists and assembly technicians at American Standard. The company banks its future on its “Made In America” roots.
Between rising fuel costs, increased tariffs on imports and a dissatisfaction with the lead times and quality of work coming from competing overseas machine shops, American Standard said it has begun seeking out new clients for which it can serve as a contract manufacturer, Sean Florian said.
It’s notable that the strategy will bring the company full circle — Steuart Florian started off as a contract manufacturer who later specialized in making garden tools. Sean and Nathaniel inherited a company that specializes in making garden tools, but now it is aiming to be a contract manufacturer.
Their aim is to recruit clients who are dissatisfied with the process of offshore manufacturing, in Asia particularly, and who want to start making products in the United States again.
He’s already signed up one client, a manufacturer of garden tools sold through Florian Tools. Florian expects a second company to sign up within a few months. He’s even hired a full time sales person — something the company’s never had — to recruit others that want to use American Standard as a contract manufacturer. Later this year, he intends on launching a Web site to promote products, like his own, that are made in the United States.
“I want to diversify,” he said. “We’ll still make pruners, but hopefully, the money we make from that will just be gravy.”
Contributing Writer Ken St. Onge blogs about manufacturing at NutmegMachine.com
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