What Lisle Corporation makes

Lisle Corporation manufactures specialty automotive tools, and it has done so from the same town, Clarinda, Iowa, for more than a century. The specialty tool line now runs past 700 products: valve refacers, oxygen sensor sockets, filter wrenches, brake and cable tools, pullers and installers, feeler gauges, and the kind of job-specific tools a technician reaches for when a general socket set will not do. Many of these are still made at the expanded site of the original 1903 factory. Alongside the tools, Lisle builds mechanic's creepers (the long-running Jeepers Creepers brand), a Parts Brush cleaning-brush line, and lubrication and tire products.

The work is vertically integrated by design. In the post-war decades the company decided to grow by introducing tools it could build in its own factory, so it could control quality, delivery, and cost rather than depend on outside makers. That capability now spans machining, milling, stamping, die casting, plastics, and assembly. Two divisions extend the range. The OEM Products Division makes magnetic drain plugs, deep-reach tank units, breather vents, and view gauges, and takes on contract and special-project work. The Dunham Tools Division, acquired in January 2015, makes industrial work-holding and tool-holding devices, expanding collets, mandrels, collet chucks, and spindle headstocks, a line founded in 1958 in New Fairfield, Connecticut.

A large share of Lisle's output never carries the Lisle name. The company runs a substantial private-label and contract manufacturing business, and tools built in Clarinda are sold under many of the leading tool and auto-parts brands on the shelf. For a buyer, that is the useful fact: Lisle is a domestic OEM and private-label maker of metal and plastic hand tools, not only a branded catalog.

Ownership and history

Lisle is privately owned and has been run by the Lisle family since C.A. Lisle started it in 1903. The first product was a horse-powered water-well drilling machine; to fight the seasonality of well drilling, the young company also built washing machines, cream separators, and reel lawn mowers. Its first automotive product, a master ignition vibrator for the Ford Model T, arrived in the mid-1920s, and the first Lisle tool, a valve refacer, followed soon after. The magnetic drain plug line launched in the 1930s and saw heavy use in military equipment during World War II, work that earned the company the Army/Navy E Award for manufacturing excellence.

Today the company is led by third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation family members. Mary Lisle Landhuis became president in 2018, the fifth generation in the role and, by the family's count, the tenth Lisle to lead the company. She also serves as president of the affiliated EZ Way, Inc., a Clarinda medical-equipment maker; together the companies employ roughly 340 people. Lisle was named a U.S. Senate Small Business of the Week, a small marker of a company that has stayed independent and in one place for 120 years. The company celebrated that 120-year milestone in 2023.

Certifications and quality

Lisle presents itself as a quality-controlled manufacturer that keeps production in-house precisely to hold standards, and third-party listings cite an ISO 9001 quality system (referenced as the 2008 revision). A current dated certificate is not posted on the company's own site, so the quality system is reported here as a claim rather than a verified current-cycle registration. Buyers running formal supplier qualification or PPAP should confirm the current certificate scope and date directly with the company.

Known customers

Lisle's downstream customers are largely unnamed, which is normal for a manufacturer whose business runs heavily through distribution and private label. The company sells to the automotive aftermarket through warehouse distributors and jobbers, and it manufactures tools sold under other companies' brand names. No individual downstream customer meets a documented-evidence bar, so none is claimed here. The more reliable read on the business comes from its sourcing record, below.

Sourcing evidence

Lisle's US import record fits a domestic tool manufacturer that buys components and some finished goods abroad: 1,615 sea shipments on record between January 2015 and February 2025, with estimated cumulative ocean-freight spend around $3.1 million (cost data covering 77% of shipments, an order-of-magnitude figure). The imports are tools, sockets, wrenches, die-cast tool bodies, plastic components, and folding creepers, the inputs and private-label goods of a specialty-tool operation rather than a reseller's finished catalog.

The supply base is concentrated in Taiwan and China, split across established tool factories. Bills of lading name the most active lanes:

Counts blend the several name spellings each supplier appears under in the manifests. By declared code, the mix leads with hand-tool and tool-component tariff lines (parking-brake cable removers, pliers, screwdriver bits) plus plastics and electrical test apparatus. The most recent recorded shipment is February 2025; that is where the customs record thins, not necessarily where the sourcing stops, since air, truck, less-than-container, and confidential manifests do not appear. A buyer weighing tariff exposure or nearshoring should note the Taiwan-and-China component dependence behind a Made-in-Iowa finished product.

Coverage caveats: these are US ocean-freight records only. Some records name freight intermediaries rather than factories, and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does Lisle Corporation make?

Lisle Corporation makes specialty automotive tools, more than 700 of them, including valve refacers, sensor sockets, filter wrenches, brake and cable tools, and pullers. It also makes mechanic's creepers (the Jeepers Creepers brand), cleaning brushes, lubrication and tire products, and, through its OEM and Dunham divisions, magnetic drain plugs, breather vents, and industrial work-holding collets and chucks. A large part of its output is private-label manufacturing for other brands.

Who owns Lisle Corporation?

Lisle Corporation is privately owned by the Lisle family and has been since C.A. Lisle founded it in 1903. It is led today by third- through sixth-generation family members, with Mary Lisle Landhuis serving as president since 2018, the tenth Lisle to lead the company.

Where is Lisle Corporation located?

Lisle Corporation is headquartered at 807 E. Main Street, Clarinda, Iowa 51632, at the expanded site of its original 1903 factory, where it has manufactured continuously for more than 120 years.

How many employees does Lisle Corporation have?

Lisle and its affiliated company EZ Way, Inc. together employ roughly 340 people in Clarinda, Iowa, per Family Business Magazine. Databases that model headcount from LinkedIn profiles run far lower and undercount blue-collar manufacturing workforces.

Does Lisle Corporation do private-label or contract manufacturing?

Yes. Lisle runs a substantial private-label and contract manufacturing business; tools it makes in Clarinda are sold under many leading tool and auto-parts brand names. Its OEM Products Division also takes on contract and special-project work.

What certifications does Lisle Corporation hold?

Third-party listings cite an ISO 9001 quality system for Lisle Corporation (referenced as the 2008 revision), and the company keeps manufacturing in-house to control quality. A current dated certificate is not published on its own site, so buyers with formal quality requirements should confirm the current scope and date directly with the company.

Last verified September 27, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.