Shaped Up, Shipped Out

But beginning in 2001, with a mostly new management team in place, J&L, which sells saw blades, drill sets, milling cutters and other metal-cutting tools to machine shops that cut and finish metal, began an aggressive turnaround process to make itself a more salable entity for Kennametal. The parent firm had wanted to unload the catalog since the late 1990s when it realized that J&L didn't fit into its long-term growth plans.