Positec Group Ltd.

Who owns Positec?
Founder Don Gao remains the controlling shareholder and CEO; a January 2025 equity round brought in investors including Frontier Investment as minority holders.

Is Positec publicly traded?
No. It is a private company headquartered in Suzhou, China.

What brands does Positec own?
Worx for consumer tools, Kress for professional outdoor equipment, and Rockwell for prosumer tools.

Is Positec a Chinese company?
Yes. It is headquartered in Suzhou Industrial Park, China, with North American operations in Charlotte, North Carolina and subsidiaries worldwide.

When was Positec founded?
Don Gao founded it in 1994 in Suzhou as an OEM tool supplier before launching its own brands in 2004.

What is Positec known for?
The Worx brand of consumer tools and the Landroid robotic mower line, where it holds global category leadership with more than one million units sold.

Don Gao founded Positec in 1994 in Suzhou as an OEM supplier, manufacturing hand tools and power tools for Western brands including Black & Decker and Sears. A formative crisis came when Black & Decker, having ordered 700,000 angle grinders in a year, pulled its business and made the tools itself in the same city. Gao concluded he needed to own the brands, not just the factory.

The pivot began in the early 2000s. Positec launched Worx in 2004 for consumer lawn and garden tools, hired veteran tool executive Tom Duncan to run North America from Charlotte, and in 2005 to 2007 acquired the Rockwell brand rights and later the German Kress name. A breakthrough infomercial for the Worx GT lawn trimmer in 2007 sold more than 300,000 units and opened big box retail doors at Lowe's, then Walmart and others.

The 2010s built the current model: the 20V Power Share battery platform unifying tools and garden equipment, expansion into roughly 70 countries, and the Landroid robotic mower line that established leadership in autonomous lawn care.

January 2025 brought the first external capital: a $250 million equity round led by Frontier Investment with Rockets Capital, CLSA Capital Partners and NRL Capital, funding R&D and global expansion. New manufacturing in Vietnam and a Kunshan base opened to diversify supply chains amid tariff pressure on China.

The company markets its cordless strategy as environmental benefit: battery tools and robotic mowers replacing gas powered equipment. Its Suzhou headquarters holds LEED Platinum certification, and its production carries WWF Low Carbon Manufacturing Program Platinum certification.

As a private company its ESG disclosure is limited, and manufacturing concentrates in China and Vietnam under local regimes.