Every now and then, a company actually invents an industry

After his boss at American Grinder Manufacturing rejected his idea for interchangeable wrench handles and sockets, Joseph Johnson decided to take matters into his own hands. He and co-worker William Seideman pioneered the idea of sockets that would be removable from their handles. At the time, wrenches were simply one piece.

Johnson and Seideman created a set of 10 sockets that would “snap on” to five different handles. The idea that “Five Do the Work of Fifty” revolutionised the industry and in 1920, the Snap-on Wrench Company was born.

Snap-on's representatives went directly to customers at their places of business. They took a swatch of green pool table felt to accentuate the jewel-like quality of the tools' chrome finishes, laid it out on tables in the auto repair shops along Chicago's Michigan Avenue, and demonstrated the innovative handles and sockets.

The mechanics were simply awed. What Johnson didn't realise is that his team wasn't simply selling to customers — they were building one of the strongest relationships in marketing history.

In 1960, Snap-on, along with 18 other franchise companies, founded the International Franchise Association to protect, enhance and promote franchising worldwide. In 2007, there were more than 1,250 members of the IFA.

Snap-on in the UK was founded in 1965 with its first Branch Office in Kettering, Northamptonshire. A little over a decade later, Snap-on Tools had 100 UK Dealers operating from four Branches, this expanded to seven Branches by the late 1980s.

In 1996 Snap-on opened a state-of-the-art Distribution Centre in Kettering, which now provides centralised service and support to Snap-on franchisees across the UK, Ireland, Europe and Scandinavia.

Snap-on has continued its innovative leadership across an ever-expanding product line to this day, offering nearly 19,000 products — each one designed and manufactured to the highest standards in the industry.