Stanley execs address Japanese supply chain

Nearly two months since the tragic Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the issue of power-tool supply-chain was raised during a Stanley Black & Decker conference call.

Stanley President and CEO John Lundgren said to the extent that there may be difficulties getting product from Japan, they would appear in the second quarter. 

Last week, Stanley reported sales of $2.381 billion for the quarter ended April 2. The devastating Japanese earthquake hit March 11. 

"The supply chain is longer than that," said Lundgren. "So any impact from Japanese producers shipping to the U.S., as a result of the difficulties in Japan, would not have shown up in first quarter numbers."

Jim Loree, executive VP and COO, added that most of Japan's power tool production remains in Japan. And if it does flow to the United States, it probably flows from Chinese factories. "The final finished goods plants haven't been impacted in any significant way from what we can tell, but we don't know to what extent their supply chain might have been impacted," Loree added. "We know that ours is pretty much unharmed with one or two very, very small immaterial items here and there."

The CEO's and COO's responses were the result of a question from an analyst, who suggested that Japanese manufacturers were shipping less to the U.S., given the demand for tools in Japan.