Blount Inc. Rebrands as Oregon Tool

Blount, Inc. unveiled a new corporate name that positions it for growth while honoring its heritage: Oregon Tool.

Oregon Tool founder
The company was founded by Joe Cox in 1947 in the basement of his Portland home. Inspired by nature – a timber beetle larva to be exact – Cox studied the creature to better understand how to cut wood more efficiently.
Oregon Tool

Blount, Inc. unveiled a new corporate name that positions it for growth while honoring its heritage: Oregon Tool.

The global manufacturer of professional-grade cutting tools and equipment selected Oregon Tool as its new name to harness the power of its pioneering origin story.

The company was founded by Joe Cox in 1947 in the basement of his Portland home. Inspired by nature – a timber beetle larva to be exact – Cox studied the creature to better understand how to cut wood more efficiently. Through his learnings, he designed a new saw chain that was modeled after the larva’s alternating C-shape jaws. He called it the “Cox Chipper Chain” and started the Oregon Saw Chain Corp. to produce it. Cox’s saw chain revolutionized the timber industry, and it remains widely used today around the globe.

Over the years, the company has grown into a multinational organization with numerous acquisitions and mergers. Today, the newly named Oregon Tool has over 3,000 team members and sells thousands of products in more than 110 countries across multiple consumer brands, among them Oregon, Woods and ICS Diamond Tools.

“We are certainly proud of where we’ve been and where we are, but we’re even more excited about where we’re going as Oregon Tool,” says Oregon Tool CEO Paul Tonnesen. “Because Oregon is the undisputed leader in the global bar and saw chain market, we are confident the inspiration and momentum inherent in the name Oregon Tool will help our organization achieve our goals in the years ahead, including aggressive growth across brands and launching into adjacent categories. We will also go beyond serving the professional end user and expand how we’re serving the do-it-yourself consumer.”

In addition to launching into adjacent categories, the company’s growth strategy includes: evolving its branding across product lines, building on its legacy of innovation and leaning into global stewardship to promote the sustainability of the industry as well as to support those who work in it.

The shift from Blount, Inc. to Oregon Tool will be effective June 2. Tonnesen says that the brands and products that customers have come to know and trust will remain the same – they will simply operate under the umbrella of Oregon Tool instead of Blount, Inc.        

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