FAYETTEVILLE -- Construction tools manufacturer Marshalltown Co. has acquired Bullet Tools, a maker of flooring shears, and is looking at using Marshalltown's Fayetteville space to take on production of Bullet Tools products.
Marshalltown's Northwest Arkansas facilities are ideal because of Bullet's production size and capacity, Marshalltown Marketing Director Jon Vance said, but the company is not ruling out moving Bullet production to Iowa.
"We are still in the review phase," he said Monday. "Right now, we are working diligently to understand their manufacturing process and ... reviewing plants for both Iowa and Arkansas" to take on Bullet production.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Marshalltown, a privately owned company, said the acquisition of Hayden, Idaho-based Bullet expands its product portfolio into a previously untapped market segment, making it a leader in the flooring and tiling trades. The deal closed last month.
"Their brand recognition, customer loyalty, innovation and above all, quality products, made them a natural fit," Joe Carter, Marshalltown's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement on Sept. 20. "We plan to grow that reputation and provide our dealers, distributors and customers with an even stronger line of flooring and tiling products."
Marshalltown said it plans to keep the Bullet Tools name and brand, but add its products to the company's catalog of mixers, knives, trowels and other tools. Marshalltown was founded more than 129 years ago as a bicycle and auto repair shop that later took up custom tools production.
"They have been on our radar for quite some time," Vance said.
After working as a flooring installer for years, Bullet founder Dalen Gunn saw demand for a way to cut vinyl or laminate boards more efficiently and developed a device offering dust-free cutting without noise or electricity for the construction industry in 1998, according to the company's website. Gunn and family have since grown the business into a full-machine shop, assembly line and customer service center, with offices for engineering, accounting and purchasing in a 15,000 square-foot facility.
Vance said 32 employees worked at Bullet when the acquisition was completed, and a couple have left recently. He said Marshalltown's long-term plans for its workers depend on where it wants to transfer Bullet's manufacturing processes.
"Right now, we don't know what we need at both facilities," Vance said, adding that the uncertainty makes it difficult to discern what's best for all employees. But Fayetteville would be his first pick to house Bullet's manufacturing, since there is more available square footage.
"Initially, that is where we are looking," he said, and Iowa "would still be an option" because of a recent expansion.
Marshalltown Tools, a subsidiary in Fayetteville, opened in the early '80s to handle overflow production, and later shipping and distribution, according to its website. The firm makes a range of tools for concrete, drywall, bricklaying, asphalt and flooring purposes, and it employs more than 250 people at two locations in Fayetteville.
Business on 10/15/2019