Britool, What is in your box?

[Wedg1e]

I bought a lovely old Starrett micrometer recently, made in Scotland.

Soon to be a foreign import then

 

[ronan]

Soon to be a foreign import then

Really ?

 

[Swift&Bold]

Really ?

If Jimmy kranky gets her way!

 

[ronan]

If Jimmy kranky gets her way!

Eh ?

 

[GW8IZR]

I come here to avoid political nonsense.. of late thats become less successful.

 

[Wedg1e]

I come here to avoid political nonsense.. of late thats become less successful.

Calm down fella, it was meant to be tongue in cheek.

 

[rory1]

Another of my bigger Britool ratchets, this one is 1" drive, I don't think it has the original handle but it's still used from time to time.

 

[Ton-up]

Finally dug out some stuff from the back of the garage, and this set was in there, which reminded me of this thread. I inherited it from my father-in-law and I don't think its hardly been used.

 

[ronan]

I used to buy britool a lot, spanners especially, but then about 15 years ago the quality went to hell in a handcart. I bought a britool hacksaw and it lasted 15 mins before it broke, and some of the spanners i bought, the jaws would spread if you were trying to use them to open a tight bolt.

 

[brightspark]

I used to buy britool a lot, spanners especially, but then about 15 years ago the quality went to hell in a handcart. I bought a britool hacksaw and it lasted 15 mins before it broke, and some of the spanners i bought, the jaws would spread if you were trying to use them to open a tight bolt.

I have all the old britool sockets . a few were missing so I bought old second hand ones of ebay for more money than the new ones and made them back up I didn't want to buy crap

 

[winchman]

I was told that Britool was bought by some French crowd and the whole brand was cheapened, like i said some of their stuff i bought was very like Draper

Late 80s early 90s Britool launched the Hallmark range, sold via van sales to compete with Snap on, it was a franchise and a total flop for the company and the franchise holders, Facom bought Britool and closed the Cannock Factory which made the spanners and all socket type bits, I loved the two old dears who refurbished torque wrenches it was like something from the 60s, now sadly gone. I assume its all made by Facom in other factorys or the far east.

 

[Rocketman]

Late 80s early 90s Britool launched the Hallmark range, sold via van sales to compete with Snap on, it was a franchise and a total flop for the company and the franchise holders, Facom bought Britool and closed the Cannock Factory which made the spanners and all socket type bits, I loved the two old dears who refurbished torque wrenches it was like something from the 60s, now sadly gone. I assume its all made by Facom in other factorys or the far east.

Yep pretty much all made in far east. Facom has plenty of stuff made in Europe but Britool is a different matter. You need to remember it is now classed as mid market because it isn't supposed to step on Facom's feet of the high market. So competitors are really stuff like Teng, Halfords pro, Draper expert, Carolus etc. But here is the thing do Facom really own Britool - not really. Stanley/Black & Decker own Facom so as a consequence own Britool.

 

[Mee]

Britool were suppliers to industries such as the NCB and other nationalised industries and with their demise came the demise of Britool, from memory they even had their own mining tool standards which were very high, even higher than their normal tools.

 

[Swift&Bold]

They were also tool suppliers to the MOD.

 

[Mee]

Interesting to note how the demise of British industry means the demise of so many other British institutions.

According to some figures the loss of one job in the coal mining industry led to 16 direct job losses in other industries.

 

[brightspark]

closing coal mines decimated other business with a knock on effect in villages

 

[winchman]

Interesting to note how the demise of British industry means the demise of so many other British institutions.

According to some figures the loss of one job in the coal mining industry led to 16 direct job losses in other industries.

People often forget its the little jobs that make the world go around as its more people with money in the pockets to spend.
I often wonder what happened to all the people who had good well paid jobs at Britool?

 

[Robotstar5]

closing coal mines decimated other business with a knock on effect in villages

It's the same when any major employer closes, the Midlands suffered in 2005 when Rover went into administration.

 

[Swift&Bold]

Trolhatten in Sweden also when Saab closed it's doors.

 

[daleyd]

Shotton Steelworks in 1980 when 6500 lost their jobs in one day, still to this day I think a record in Western Europe.