The
Positec Tool Corporation was founded in
Suzhou, China, in 1994 by Don Gao. In the early 2000s, Gao decided to branch out by manufacturing tools and lawn care accessories under his own brand name. Meanwhile, Tom Duncan, the current CEO of the
Positec Tool Corporation in
North America, was the vice president of a
Robert Bosch GmbH-owned company called Vermont American. He quit that job in 2003 to pursue the manufacture of a line of power tools. He purchased the rights to the brand name "Rockwell" which hadn't been in use for power tools since 1981. Gao and Duncan met in 2004, with Gao looking to launch the "
WORX" brand of lawn care accessories and Duncan looking to manufacture the Rockwell Tools brand. They decided to partner up, and Duncan became the head of the North American division of
Positec in 2005. Both the Rockwell Tools and the WORX brands were originally sold directly to consumers via
infomercials. Products branded with Rockwell Tools first appeared in the retailer Lowe's, in October 2009. Rockwell Tools could also be found in Costco and The Home Depot (among other retailers) in 2012. In 2013, Rockwell Tools was a part of an integrated
ad campaign that was featured on both the
History Channel and its reality TV series
Counting Cars. The campaign's slogan was "Rock Your Garage", which was also the title of a sweepstakes associated with the campaign. ==Products==