Snap-on Inc

Snap-on was founded as the Snap-on Wrench Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1920 by Joseph Johnson and William Seidemann. The business manufactured and marketed ten sockets that would "snap on" to five interchangeable handles. The company's slogan was "5 do the work of 50". In 1930, the company's headquarters moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

After World War II, Stanton Palmer advertised for a military officer to organize and develop a larger sales force for the expected post war sales boom. Newton Tarble was hired, and came up with the idea of developing routes for company dealers to see mechanics on a weekly basis. Eventually these salesmen became independent businessmen and authorized dealers using larger walk in vans to carry a growing product line.

In 1956, the company continued to expand with the use of test equipment and wheel service products. This was the start of the company's jump into manufacturing automotive test equipment into the Snap-On line. Equipment included voltmeters, ammeters, disruptors, and alternator testers.

The company opened its wrench forging plant in Elizabethton, Tennessee in 1974. The next year, Snap-on opened a manufacturing plant in Johnson City, Tennessee and closed the plant in 2007.

In 1998, workers at the company's Milwaukee plant voted to join the Teamsters labor union and the company expanded the facility in 2013. Also in 1998, the company began a partnership with Lowe's home improvement chain retailer to produce its Kobalt line of tools. [ citation needed ]

In 2010, the Murphy, North Carolina plant was named one of the top 10 plants in North America by IndustryWeek. In 2011, J.H. Williams & Co was officially renamed Snap-on Industrial Brands. [ citation needed ] In 2022, the company announced an expansion to its Milwaukee facility to grow its hand tool business.