Are Ryobi And Hart Brand Power Tools Made In The Same Factory?

If your next DIY project requires a new power tool, you may find yourself choosing between consumer-friendly brands like Ryobi and Hart. Distinctly different in brand design and availability, with Hart available exclusively at Walmart and Ryobi more universally stocked, both cater to homeowners who may not need the power and features of professional-grade equipment. Quality is not where their similarities end, though, as both brands are also products of Techtronic Industries (TTi), a Hong Kong-based leader in power tools, hand tools, outdoor equipment, and more. 

Seeing as how Ryobi and Hart share a similar parent company, it may stand to reason that the two are manufactured in the same factories, leading you to question whether it matters which you decide to buy. Logic would suggest that if they're owned by the same company, they must be identical in quality. However, it's not that easy. 

Yes, Ryobi and Hart are both properties of TTi, but the company operates factories in the United States, Mexico, China, Vietnam, and parts of Europe that develop consumer-friendly and professional-grade equipment. This factor alone can make it difficult to pinpoint where either brand is manufactured. Still, there's even more to Ryobi's history that may initially muddy the waters, making it difficult to determine if the brands ever cross paths on the assembly line.

Perform a simple search for Ryobi power tools, and you may fall into a rabbit hole. While Hart Tools is a pretty straightforward brand with only one presence that may be manufactured in any of TTi's global plants, following the development of Ryobi tools will throw you off course for a spell.

Why? According to Ryobi's official website, the company was wholly purchased and transferred to the Kyocera Group in 2018. According to Kyocera's website, it has distributors and factories all over Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Does that mean that Ryobi power tools have a greater chance of coming from factories that Hart tools have never graced?

The answer is a somewhat confusing "not really." The Ryobi that Kyocera purchased is actually not the same Ryobi that's sold in stores in North America, Europe, and Mexico. While the branding was identical (before Kyocera purchased what was Ryobi Ltd.), the branch of Ryobi sold in 2018 served very specific markets in Japan, parts of Asia, and Africa, and those tools now carry the Kyocera branding.

Even with all that clarified, we're still left with the original question: Are Ryobi and Hart power tools made in the same factory? It's not an easy question to answer definitively without being on the ground floor of any of TTi's facilities. According to a 2020 annual report, however, we know that TTi's primary manufacturing site is its Dongguan facility, and between 2019 and 2020, output at that facility increased by 7 percent.

However, the same report clearly outlines the company's intent to increase its manufacturing in Vietnam, North America, and Mexico. Specifically, it discusses global recruitment for R&D divisions and constructing manufacturing sites in South Carolina and Wisconsin.

The catch is that TTi is a major corporation that owns brands like Hoover and Milwaukee alongside Ryobi and Hart. Which products are produced where is never clearly laid out, but knowing that the 3 million-square-foot facility in Dongguan is the company's largest and most productive, it's safe to say that at least some part of the next Ryobi power tool you buy shared a space with a Hart Tools product.