The Brand Story
Malco: The Tool Company That Began With One Crimper and a Borrowed Garage
In 1950 a young steel supply salesman named Mark W. Keymer kept noticing the same thing on job sites: the men installing sheet metal ductwork for the new forced-air furnaces going into postwar homes were fighting their own tools. He had some engineering training, an idea for a better hand crimper, and a friend named Al with a garage. The two of them went to work, and the company they started took its name from the partnership itself. Seventy-five years later, the tools that grew out of that garage hang on the belts of sheet metal workers, HVAC installers and roofers across the country.
Chapter 1 · 1950 to 1954
Mark and Al's Company
Malco is a contraction of "Mark and Al's Company." Its very first product was a five-blade hand crimper, the tool an installer uses to crimp the end of a duct section so it slides into the next one. The office was a kitchen table, the filing system was a shoebox, and orders went out on a manual typewriter.
In 1954 the operation moved out of Al's garage and into Mark's basement, and Al left the business. Mark's wife, Dorothy, kept the books. The company hired its first employee, signed its first independent sales representative and printed a one-page catalog listing the crimper, a hand seamer and scratch awls. Every Malco catalog since has grown from that single sheet.
Chapter 2 · 1962 to 1978
Tool School and the road to Annandale
By 1962 Malco had built a national network of sales representatives, and Mark Keymer started something he called Tool School, training sessions that taught the reps exactly how each tool worked and why. The idea that the people selling a tool should understand the trade using it became part of the company's character.
In 1971 Malco began moving its punch press operations from Minneapolis to Annandale, a small town in central Minnesota, and the move was complete by 1973. That same year Mark's son Gerry became vice president. In 1975 Malco opened a new specialty market in exterior remodeling tools for roofing, siding and gutters, later extended to fence, deck and rail work. Zip-In screws arrived in 1976, and in 1978 Mark retired and Gerry took over as president.
Chapter 3 · 1982 to 1998
Blades, snips and the sheet metal trade
The 1980s and 1990s filled out the catalog the trades know today. Bi-metal reciprocating saw blades came in 1982. The FasGroov system reached the HVAC market in 1989. A CAD/CAM system arrived in 1990 to speed product development, and in 1992 Malco updated its aviation snip line, the compound-leverage shears that cut sheet metal by hand. A 20-inch sheet metal hole cutter followed in 1995, and in 1998 came Max2000 aviation snips, a one-inch notcher and the Sider tool for siding installers.
Chapter 4 · 1999 to 2017
Handing the company to the people who built it
In 1999 Gerry Keymer sold his share of the business, beginning a transfer of ownership to an employee stock ownership plan. Mark Keymer, the founder, died in 2001, and in 2007 he was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame.
The engineering kept moving. The TurboShear drill attachment, which turns a cordless drill into a sheet metal cutter, launched in 2003 with a heavy-duty version a year later. The TurboCrimper power-assisted duct crimper followed in 2012, a modern answer to the hand crimper that started the company. In 2015 the employee stock ownership plan took majority ownership and the company adopted open-book financials. Two years later Malco introduced the C-RHEX cleanable, reversible hex driver, and for its 70th anniversary in 2020 it added 5/16-inch and 3/8-inch versions.
Chapter 5 · 2018
Bringing tool making back to DeWitt
DeWitt, Nebraska, had made tools for generations. The VISE-GRIP locking plier was created there in 1924, and the town's factory built it until 2008, when production moved to China. In October 2018 Malco opened a new production facility in DeWitt and began making its Eagle Grip locking pliers, hiring several former VISE-GRIP workers among its first full-time employees. Malco was recognized as a Medium Manufacturer of the Year that same year.
Chapter 6 · 2024
A new parent, the same Annandale address
In late October 2024 Aspen Pumps Group announced it had acquired Malco. Aspen, founded in the United Kingdom in 1992 by three air conditioning engineers, makes condensate removal pumps, tools, cleaning chemicals and accessories for the HVAC/R trade and sells in more than 100 countries. Malco's Annandale headquarters became Aspen's North American headquarters, and Malco president and CEO Rich Benninghoff became CEO of Aspen Pumps Group North America. Malco now operates as part of The Malco Group, still at the same address on Highway 55 in Annandale.
The Lineup
What Malco builds today
Malco makes hand tools, power tool attachments, driver bits, blades and fasteners for HVAC, sheet metal, roofing, siding and general construction. HVAC365 carries a broad slice of that catalog:
- Aviation snips: left- and right-cutting offset snips such as the AV9 and the AVM6, part of a family that runs back to the aviation snip line Malco updated in 1992. More cutting tools live under nippers and snips.
- Drill bits and nut setters: C-RHEX cleanable hex drivers and the CRHEXKIT1 kit, the AA42DMB adjustable aluminum driver, BT132 hex bit tips, the 4IN1 multi-purpose driver bit and the D6HTAST six-piece high-torque driver set.
- Fasteners and screws: a fastener line whose roots go back to the Zip-In screws Malco introduced in 1976.
- Knives, saws and blades: bi-metal reciprocating blades such as the 4DL6 for nail-embedded wood, and the 4KH6 keyhole saw for drywall and paneling.
- HVAC and sheet metal hammers: hammers shaped for seaming and forming sheet metal.
- HVAC parts and supplies: wrenches and measuring tools including the 8PAP adjustable pipe wrench, the 8PWB wide jaw adjustable wrench and the DEFT1 digital torque wrench.
At a Glance
Malco by the numbers
- Founded
- 1950
- Founder
- Mark W. Keymer
- Name origin
- Mark and Al's Company
- First product
- Five-blade hand duct crimper
- Headquarters
- Annandale, Minnesota
- Factories
- Annandale, MN and DeWitt, NE
- Employee ownership
- ESOP majority from 2015
- Parent company
- Aspen Pumps Group, since 2024
Questions
Frequently asked questions about Malco
Who owns Malco Tools?
Malco was acquired by the UK-based Aspen Pumps Group, announced in October 2024. Before that it was majority owned by its employees through an ESOP, and its Annandale, Minnesota, headquarters now serves as Aspen's North American headquarters.
Where are Malco tools made?
Malco lists production facilities in Annandale, Minnesota, where it has been based since the early 1970s, and in DeWitt, Nebraska, where it opened a plant in 2018 in the town that once built VISE-GRIP pliers.
When was Malco founded and what does the name mean?
Mark W. Keymer founded Malco in 1950. The name is short for Mark and Al's Company, after Keymer and his early partner Al, in whose garage the business began.
What was Malco's first tool?
Malco's first product was a five-blade hand crimper for joining sections of sheet metal ductwork in forced-air heating systems.
What is a Malco C-RHEX driver?
C-RHEX is Malco's cleanable, reversible hex driver line, introduced in 2017. Malco added more lengths in 2018 and 2019 and new 5/16-inch and 3/8-inch sizes in 2020.
