Kell-Strom Tool Co Inc Information

Kell-Strom was founded in 1942 by Francis J. Kelly and three partners as a machine shop in Hartford, CT. The name came from Frank Kelly and Hans Lundstrom two of the original four founders. Prior to the end of WWII, the company became solely owned by Francis J. Kelly. The company moved to Wethersfield, CT in 1950 and remains at the same location today. Early in it's history Kell-Strom began to specialize as a manufacturer of service tools for aircraft. (See a copy of our first ever order.) In 1965 Kell-Strom was licensed by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft of Canada to manufacture and sell service tools in support of the PT6 engine recently developed by P&WC. From the tremendous success of that engine, P&WC developed an entire family of turboprops and turbofan engines to serve the Regional and Corporate aviation markets. Kell-Strom has been part of that growth from that time. Under the license agreement that we hold, Kell-Strom manufactures, markets and inventories tooling for the support of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. The engine manufacturer does not have to concern itself with the logistics associated with supplying support equipment to their customers. They are able to proceed with building and selling the engines and spare parts that their customers require, knowing that Kell-Strom will assure that the tooling gets to the right place at the right time. This concept has been proven to work effectively, and we have been fortunate to translate our first agreement with P&WC into other license agreements with other companies. We currently have agreements with Honeywell Aerospace, Champion Spark Plug, Haynes Diesel, Precision Airmotive, and Teledyne Continental Motors and a joint venture with DCN International. We also regularly participate in trade exhibitions on a world-wide basis and, recently, Kell-Strom was honored with Connecticut's "Outstanding Progress in Exporting" award for 1996 by Governor, John Rowland.