The mid-1970s were a time of product expansion for the STIHL Group, which, until then, had focused solely on making chain saws. In 1974, the company opened factories in Virginia Beach, VA, and Wil, Switzerland. The Virginia facility (which is ASSEMBLY’s 2014 Plant of the Year) currently produces more than 275 model variations of handheld outdoor power equipment. The Swiss plant, since day one, only makes saw chains.
In June 2013, managers there reviewed the safety gloves workers were using to protect themselves from accidental cuts during manufacturing. The managers determined that the gloves did not meet Level 3 of the European EN 388 standard, which requires the glove material be strong enough to withstand 2,000 cycles of sharp-object abrasion before puncturing.