Local media cited financial troubles leading to buyer backing out of purchasing the hand tool maker’s Bushnell, IL plant.
A 150-year-old Vaughan tool plant is reportedly set to close following a failed buyout.
Local ABC news station KHQA7 (Quincy, IL) reported April 11 that Vaughan & Bushnell Mfg. Co. — a manufacturer of hammers, axes, prybars and hand saws — will close its Bushnell, IL factory doors for good at an unannounced date.
Local media reported that the closure will impact 130 employees and follows a failed buyout by Marshalltown, IA-based Marshalltown Manufacturing, which backed out of the deal. KHQA7 noted that Marshalltown backed out of the deal due to financial issues within Vaughan.
“We were extremely excited about the possibility of combining two great American companies, but it became clear to us the timing just wasn’t quite right,” a Marshalltown marketing director told fellow Quincy news station WGEM.
Bushnell Mayor Robin Wilt told local media it is unclear if another company would be willing to buy the Vaughan plant and that it would take ‘a few months’ for the facility to fully shutter.
Vaughan’s headquarters are in Woodstock, IL, and the company has another northern Illinois location in Hebron.
Vaughan & Bushnell, which does business as Vaughan, was founded in 1869 in Chicago as a plumbing business. It soon added a blacksmith shop before producing custom tools. Much of the company was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, later incorporating in 1882 as the Vaughan and Bushnell Manufacturing Company.
In 1993, Vaughan became the world’s first striking tool manufacturer to be awarded the ISO 9002 Certification.
In 2018, Vaughan marked a significant expansion by acquiring chisel and punch maker DascoPro in Rockford, IL.
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Mike Hockett
Mike Hockett is MDM’s executive editor, having joined the publication in March 2022. He oversees MDM’s editorial content and direction, coordinates with contributing authors, conducts interviews with executives in the wholesale distribution space and serves as the editorial face of MDM at industry events. He has extensively covered the distribution and manufacturing sectors since 2014. Hockett works from his home in Madison, WI. He can be contacted at mike@mdm.com.
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