Master Lock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Master Lock Company
Type Subsidiary
Founded 1921
Headquarters Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Products Padlocks
Parent Fortune Brands Home & Security
Website www.masterlock.com
For the professional wrestling move called the Master Lock, see Professional wrestling holds.

Master Lock is an American company that develops padlocks, combination locks and related security products and manufactures them mostly in China and Mexico. Now an operating unit of Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc., Master Lock Company LLC was formed in 1921 by locksmith-inventor Harry E. Soref, and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[1][2][3][4]

In 1970, the company was purchased by American Brands from Soref's heirs.[3] American Brands was later renamed to Fortune Brands, which then split on October 3, 2011 to create the Fortune Brands Home & Security company.

Laminated lock design and company history

Before founding the company in 1921, Harry Soref had been a traveling locksmith in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico,[2][4] had invented a lock for protecting military equipment,[3][4] and had founded the "Master Key" company for making master skeleton keys.[2] In 1919, Soref then invented a padlock design that used laminated steel layers to economically produce an exceptionally strong lock body.[3][4] He initially tried to get some large companies interested in using his design, but was unsuccessful, so he recruited financial backing from two friends, P. E. Yolles and Sam Stahl,[3] and founded the Master Lock company in 1921 to produce the locks himself, initially with five employees.[2][4] In 1924, he was granted the first patent on such a laminated lock design.[3][4] He led the company to become a major manufacturer of locks before his death in 1957.[3] However, the brand had not yet reached its peak status as an iconic, universally-familiar consumer brand at the time of his death.[4] Sam Stahl, one of the original investors, then led the company until he also died in 1964.[3] The Soref family then took over the company management,[3] later selling the company to the American Brands Corporation in 1970.[3]

In 2010, Master Lock began offering a password manager service called Master Lock Vault that includes a web site and associated software applications for use on various devices.[5]

In 2012, Master Lock introduced a new line of combination padlocks called the dialSpeed.[6] The dialSpeed lock is battery-operated, has a lit face, and features multiple user-programmable combinations. It has a master unlocking code that can be accessed through the company web site.[6]

Iconic ad

In 1974, Master Lock ran a notable Super Bowl ad where one of their locks survived being shot by a sharpshooter, thereby proving its durability, thus the slogan Tough Under Fire™. Master Lock would continue running similar ads during future Super Bowls, spending almost their entire annual marketing budget on the single commercial.[7] Later, Master would incorporate the image into a one second long blipvert commercial in 1998.[8]

Offshoring and re-shoring

At its peak in the early 1990s, the company employed about 1,300 workers in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.[1][9] In 1993, the company began moving much of its manufacturing to China, and later also moved some manufacturing to Mexico.[1][9] Most of the jobs at its Milwaukee plant were eliminated, although the company continued to perform some of its manufacturing at the plant using heavily-automated manufacturing processes.[1]

In January 2011, it was announced that about 36 jobs were being returned from China to the Milwaukee plant, which would increase the number of positions at the plant to 379.[1][9] Most of the added jobs were for making combination locks, subassemblies and keys.[1] It was reported that the company would also continue to contract with three Chinese factories and about twenty Chinese suppliers, and operate its maquiladora near the Arizona border, where Mexican workers perform non-automated labor-intensive work such as assembling made-in-Milwaukee components.[1][10]

In February 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Master Lock headquarters in Milwaukee Wisconsin and lauded the company's recent return of jobs from overseas locations.[11] As of that time, it was reported that the company had returned about 100 jobs from overseas during the preceding two-year period.[11]

  • Master Lock Locks

  • A Master Lock brand combination padlock.

  • Master Lock with shackle open.

  • Master Lock with a key storage device inside.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Schmid, John, Master Lock reassessing China: Milwaukee-based company finds it can compete better from U.S. soil, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan. 1, 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Harry E. Soref, Univ. Wisconsin Milwaukee Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Master Lock Company History, Funding Universe,
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Alfred, Randy, March 2, 1887: Birth of the Master Locksmith, Wired.com, March 2, 2009 (republished March 2, 2011).
  5. ↑ https://www.masterlockvault.com/
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Master dialSpeed 1500EDBX Padlock Review, Gadget Review, August 23, 2012.
  7. ↑ Blankenhorn, Dana, Advertising During the Super Bowl: A Mixed Bag, ClickZ Marketing News & Expert Advice, Jan. 23, 2001.
  8. ↑ Christopher, Alistair, Blink Of An Ad, Time, Aug. 3, 1998.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Ahmed, Beenish, Some Jobs Finally Return at Master Lock, United Auto Workers, Jan. 24, 2011.
  10. ↑ Ahmed, Beenish, Local 469 workers have right combination for more jobs at Master Lock: "Re-sourced" work from China returns to Milwaukee plant, United Auto Workers Solidarity, Mar./Apr. 2011.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Garcia, Jon, Obama Trip to Lock Factory Evokes Smelly High School Gym Memories, ABC News, Feb. 15, 2012.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.