Are DeWalt's GRABO Lifters Actually Made By GRABO?

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Hardware brands tend to be a bit insular with their wares. It's a competitive market, after all, and if one brand can keep you buying its products exclusively over all others, it's to its benefit. That said, on occasion, several brands may team up on a temporary basis, usually to provide a particular service or product that they may not be able to offer individually.

One such example of this is the DeWalt GRABO Lifter, a material-handling tool designed to adhere to flat surfaces with a powerful suction force and a thick handle. If you weren't aware, it'd be easy to assume "GRABO" is just a cute name that DeWalt decided to assign to this interesting gadget. In actuality, though, GRABO is an entirely separate brand of hardware products, specifically one that specializes in those vacuum-suction material-handling power tools. GRABO manufactures and sells its own material-handlers independently of DeWalt, but the DeWalt GRABO Lifter in particular was actually a collaborative effort between both companies.

According to GRABO's website, the DeWalt GRABO Suction Lifter is the result of a business partnership between GRABO itself and DeWalt's parent company, Stanley Black & Decker. Apparently, Stanley Black & Decker reached out to the GRABO brand following the commercial release of its suction lifters and proposed a collaboration, merging GRABO's technology with the established pedigree of the DeWalt brand.

Rather than one of DeWalt's factories, the resulting line of DeWalt GRABO Lifters was assembled in a manufacturing plant associated with GRABO, but with the addition of DeWalt's QA standards. All components of the tools are tested to ensure they meet DeWalt's standards, and the final tools are also run through a battery of stress tests before they actually leave the factory.

GRABO has not divulged the precise location of the manufacturing plant where all of the assembly testing occurs. However, GRABO's website does host a series of videos showing its product assembly line, as well as stress testing, including walking heavy materials down a street, carrying maximum loads, enduring large quantities of dust, and determining the overall longevity of the tool's various connectors. DeWalt's online page for the GRABO Lifter does not offer any further insight into the creation process of the tool, merely its general capabilities.