At that point, Steve Berliner joined Leatherman as a co-founder, and together, they began making the tools in Berliner’s father’s metalworking factory.
“We were quite lucky in that his father did have this metal-working business and was quite generous. He let us use his machines and his employees on a sub-contractor basis. And that was the start of our local factory,” Leatherman says.
The business kept growing and growing. Today it has a 10,000 metre factory employing 500 workers, who together make 8000 tools a day.
Australia was one of the earliest export markets for Leatherman and is its second-largest export market (after Germany). The American company started selling here when it was approached by distributors after an American trade show.
Leatherman says Australians have been keen adopters of the Leatherman and he has a few theories as to why.
“In America, if we get in trouble we might rely on somebody else to get us out of trouble,” he says. “But in Australia, it seems to me the mindset is that people have to get themselves out of trouble. So they go prepared. And if there’s a problem, they want to know they have the tools to deal with it.”
Looking to the future, Leatherman says the goal of his company is to remain the number one company in what has become as the ‘multi-tool category’.
How do they plan to do that? Leatherman says that if 30 years in business has taught him one thing, it’s to always “sweat the details”.
“You want to make sure that everything you’re doing is something that’s going to make the customer happy,” he says.
“Of course, the biggest thing is just that – keep the customer happy. And sweating the details is part of that.”
Myriam Robin is a reporter for SmartCompany and its sister site LeadingCompany. She has degrees in economics, international studies and journalism. She likes writing about businesses taking risks and doing new things.
