View source for Lee Valley Tools

{{Short description|Woodworking store}}{{primary sources|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Lee Valley Tools Ltd.
| logo = Lee Valley.JPG
| logo_size = 250px
| type = Private
| genre =
| foundation = [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]], Canada (1978)
| founder = [[Leonard Lee]]
| location_city = [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]]
| location_country = Canada
| location =
| locations = 20
| area_served = Canada
| key_people = Robin Lee, CEO and Jason Tasse, President & COO
| industry = Tools
| products = Woodworking and Gardening Tools
| services =
| revenue =
| operating_income =
| net_income =
| assets =
| equity =
| owner =
| num_employees =
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| subsid =
| slogan =
| homepage = http://www.leevalley.com/
| footnotes =
| intl =
}}
'''Lee Valley Tools Ltd.''' is a Canadian business specializing in tools and gifts for woodworking and gardening.
==Corporate identity==
The company is family-owned. The founder, [[Leonard Lee]], was a recipient of the [[Order of Canada]]. He founded the company in 1978, in [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]]. Over the next ten years, the company opened several more stores in [[Toronto]] and [[Vancouver]], and started manufacturing its own line of tools (starting with the Veritas Dovetail Marker in 1982). Since then, it has continued opening stores, manufacturing more diverse tools, and selling through [[mail order]] and the [[internet]]. In 1998, Canica Design was launched. Canica is a medical design company associated with Lee Valley Tools<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leevalley.com/en/home/contact.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100426064410/http://www.leevalley.com/en/home/contact.aspx |archive-date=2010-04-26 |title=Lee Valley Tools - Contact Us}}</ref>  which arose out of consultations between Leonard Lee and surgeon Michael Bell after Lee found that Bell was using Lee Valley tools in his plastic surgery practice.
Lee Valley Tools is notable for enforcing and codifying the concept of “pay slope”<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/how-one-company-levels-the-pay-slope-of-executives-and-workers/article15472738/|title=How one company levels the pay slope of executives and workers}}</ref> limiting the pay at the highest levels in the company based on what the lowest paid employees earn. They earned a slot in the Forbes Top 500 Employers list in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/companies/lee-valley-tools/|title = Lee Valley Tools| website=[[Forbes]] }}</ref>
==Consumer sales==
The primary business is [[Mail order|mail-order]] and retail, purveying mainly [[woodworking]] and [[gardening]] tools and equipment, as well as woodworking hardware and gifts. The consumer part of the business runs under the main company name, Lee Valley Tools.
==Veritas Tools==
[[File:Axes and Woodcutting tools, Lee Valley (2579477868).jpg|thumb|right|Various Lee Valley tools]]
Lee Valley also has a manufacturing arm, called '''Veritas Tools'''. Veritas makes many woodworking hand-tools, including [[hand plane]]s, [[marking gauge]]s and other measuring tools, [[wood router|router]] tables, sharpening systems, and numerous other gadgets. Veritas does research and development activities for the factory line, and has developed and patented many innovative designs.{{cn|date=September 2021}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Official website|http://www.leevalley.com}}
* [http://www.veritastools.com/ Veritas Tools]
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Hardware stores of Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian brands]]
[[Category:Tool manufacturing companies of Canada]]
[[Category:Woodworking]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies based in Ottawa]]
[[Category:Retail companies established in 1978]]
[[Category:1978 establishments in Ontario]]
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