Good morning and welcome to Snap-on Incorporated's 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. My name is Richard Miller. I am Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Snap-on, and I will serve as today's parliamentarian. At this time, I would like to ask everybody to please turn off or silence your cell phones. The meeting is being webcast and recorded, and a recording of it will be available at snap-on.com shortly following the meeting. I now call the 2023 Annual Meeting of Snap-on Shareholders to order. We have made the order of business and rules of order available to everyone, and I would like to request that you please abide by them. It is now 10:05 A.M. on April 27th, 2023, and the Polls are officially open.
If anyone has not yet voted and would like to do so, our Inspectors of Election, Abby Kohart and Fred Papenmeier from Computershare, are here in the back of the room and can record your vote. Attending today's meeting are the following members of the Board of Directors. I would ask that you please stand when I call your name. David C. Adams, retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Karen L. Daniel, retired Division President and Chief Financial Officer of Black & Decker Corporation. Ruth Ann M. Gillis, retired Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of ExxonMobil Corporation. James P. Holden, Snap-on's Lead Director and retired President and Chief Executive Officer of DaimlerChrysler Corporation. Nathan J. Jones, retired President, Worldwide Commercial and Consumer Equipment Division, Deere & Company. Henry W. Knippel, retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Regal Beloit Corporation.
Dudley Lehman, retired Group President of Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Greg M. Scherpel, retired Chairman of the Board and former Chief Executive Officer of Tecumseh Products Company. Nick Pinchuk, Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Snap-on. Nick will present an update on the performance of your company at the conclusion of the official business. Also here today are James Stewart and Owen McCormick, representing our auditors, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and they will be available to answer questions after the meeting. We have an affidavit that notices the meeting was mailed as required, and it will be incorporated into the company's meeting minutes. Since it appears that all Shareholders have had the opportunity to vote, will the Inspectors of Election please confirm that all ballots have been counted?
As Inspectors, please confirm all ballots have been counted.
Okay. Thank you very much. It is now 10:07 A.M., and the polls are officially closed. 53,122,822 shares of Common Stock, each having one vote on each proposal, are entitled to vote at this meeting. I've been advised by the Inspectors of Election that we have a quorum with 89% of all shares outstanding at the meeting. All voting results are stated as a percentage of the stock represented unless otherwise stated. Today, we have four items on the agenda. Our first is the election of directors. The board has nominated the following candidates to serve until the 2024 Annual Meeting: David C. Adams, Director since 2016; Karen L. Daniel, Director since 2005; Ruth Ann M. Gillis, Director since 2014; James P. Holden, Director since 2007; Henry W. Knippel, Director since 2019; Nathan J. Jones, Director since 2008; W.
Dudley Lehman, Director since 2003; Nick Pinchuk, Director since 2007; Greg M. Scherpel, Director since 2010; Donald J. Stebbins, Director since 2015. Each of the directors received votes in their favor of at least 77% of the shares represented, and therefore each has been duly elected. The second item of business was ratification of the selection of the Audit Committee of Deloitte & Touche as the company's auditors. 91% of the shares represented voted in favor of this proposal. Therefore, the Audit Committee selection of Deloitte & Touche has been ratified. The next item of business is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of Snap-on's named executive officers as presented in the proxy statement. 92% of the votes cast for approval of the compensation, and therefore the resolution is approved. I apologize. Yep, 92.
The last item of business is the frequency on which the advisory vote on the compensation of directors is considered by the board each year. 96% of votes cast supported continuing to hold that vote annually as recommended. This now completes the official business, and the meeting is now adjourned at 10:10 A.M. We will now have a short video. Please watch.
The world moves forward, making lives better. Progress shaped by work. The work of days, the work of years. It's the work of the few. It's the work of the many. The work of the skilled. The work of the serious. It's the work of makers, and it's the work of fixers. We are Snap-on, and we are the people of that work. We are the wielders of insight and experience, forged by the decades, sharpened by the new, and guided by the work. We summon the future out of the present. We make the critical and the essential easier.
The LN47 needle-nose pliers, you know, we actually purchased these because guys like me, you know, once you've been banging on wrenches all your life, your wrists get real weak, so you just kind of lose the grip in your hands. I've been struggling with that. These things actually require about 10% of the pressure to grab something that would require 100% of the pressure. That's the one thing that sold me on these. I didn't have to question the strength or the durability because it's Snap-on.
I work heavy-duty diesel trucks. Yeah, this is my favorite go-to 3/8 impacts for daily use, the CT-861. Just because it's so compact, high power, you get in them tight places and it's got light, so see what you're working on. It's just all-around amazing product.
I've been working on cars since a very young age. I've been doing it professionally for about the last 10 years. There is a lot of data to monitor on vehicles these days, and Snap-on scan tools have just progressed as the data has. It takes a lot of the guessing out of repairing a car. It just gives us the data that you need right at your fingertips. Get cars in and out as quick as possible without comebacks. That's how we make our money. Time is money in this business, so any time that we can save, we're going to be able to make more money. We were working on a Honda, trying to take the crank pulley bolt off. Snap-on comes in every week. They make sure that I'm up to date on anything I need.
I said, "Hey, do you still have that socket you showed me last week?" He said, "Yeah, I'm going to go grab it." I put it on the impact. That bolt came off within seconds. I bought it on the spot. Snap-on, for an everyday mechanic, is where you have to be. If you want quality tools, you've got to stay with Snap-on.
We are the bearers of pride and dignity. We mark the special and the committed.
I export my Snap-on stuff quite often. I'm proud to wear my Snap-on gear. It says who I am and the kind of work that I do. Snap-on tools has always been something you can carry on your chest proudly and know when you walk into a shop that people will come to you and they'll tell you a story about, you know, their father or their grandfather who used Snap-on tools and what it meant to them. That in itself carries immense pride for me, to be able to walk through any place and never have to one time say, "We're almost as good as that." You never have to say, "Oh, Snap-on. You are the best." With your competition, they shake in their boots when they see a good Snap-on guy. It's time for them to move and go find another place to do business.
That doesn't bother me at all. Let them go.
We greet the dawn and meet the dusk. We deliver dreams and we change lives.
My stepdad worked for Snap-on in this route, and he begged me for almost a year, "Just come work for me. You'll love it." He said, "Just ride with me for three days." I loved every minute of it from the time I woke up to the time I went home. In two years, at this point, I'm running a million-dollar business. My phone rings anywhere from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. The guys know that anytime they call or text me, I will respond to them. I walk into shops and they're happy to see me. You know, that's important to me. It's amazing to have that job where you can show up and have some fun and still make good money. At the end of the day, I wouldn't change anything about it. It's the best decision I made, for sure.
You know, we see the same customers over and over again, so it's more intimate. You get to be somewhat of a confidant and a friend. I have customers that I've seen since day one. It's going on 21 years. Second generation, of course. I've had a couple of those. There is a shared trust in this relationship. It shows that you have a commitment to your customers when you show up week in and week out.
I catered my whole career and life to being able to open my own shop. It's a dream come true, honestly. Snap-on Credit was just amazing. They financed everything for me, and I was able to get everything I needed to open the shop. I never would have imagined that it would be where it's at right now. You know, come to work every day and have fun and serve the community, and it doesn't feel like a job. You know, it just feels like my passion. I look forward to every day working here.
In the end, when you can raise a family and live a nice lifestyle and have a lot of pride in what you do, it's really something. You can't get that a lot of places. I feel that Snap-on is the best product that a professional mechanic can spend his money on. I love selling the best tools.
The world does move forward every day.
It's progress.
It's work.
It's pride.
It's dignity.
It's dreams.
It's lives.
It's Snap-on.
It's all of us.
We make a difference.
Wow. The lights come up. Look, it's great to be back with everybody here. You know, we were apart so long during the COVID. Each time we get together, I feel great about it. I hope you feel the same. I want to open this meeting officially by welcoming you to the 2023 Annual Meeting of Stakeholders.
Snap-on, I hope you realize, and I'm going to try to make the case to you in the next several minutes, that Snap-on is a great company, unique and special, founded now almost 103 years ago, more than 10 decades ago, and founded on the timeless principle that we should have the respect for the pride and dignity of work, enlisted in an endeavor, you know, summoning the new out of the present, creating products and tools that make work easier for working men and women, moving the world forward, a cause that is as relevant today as it was all those 100 years ago. I'm here to tell you that, first of all, you are all part of this. Everybody in this room contributes in some way to the strength that is Snap-on.
What I want to tell you, why I'm here, the principal purpose is that Snap-on, the Snap-on company, your company, our company has never, ever, ever been stronger than it is today. You can count on that. You know, part of the reason why we're where we are is because we have come through some difficult times. I remember the Great Financial Recession and, of course, the recent existential threat we called the COVID. One of the reasons is we have a great board, eminent, capable, steadfast, standing firm among all these difficulties. One of the reasons why we've been so resilient in this is their leadership and their guidance and their support. I ask you to once again give these ladies and gentlemen a round of applause.
I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that you've heard me say this before, but the people of Snap-on feel privileged to have all of you on our board, and I mean it. I love that video, huh? You know, you might wonder why, you know, we had the tumbleweed and the visages from Monument Valley. It's not because we love those visages so much, but we had that as part of our SFC last year, Snap-on Franchise Conference in Dallas, Texas. You know what? It struck us that, boy, the spirit of the West is exactly the way the idea of moving out and making a life of your own from nothing is what Snap-on people do when they ride those vans. That's why we did this.
I kind of felt that I should open my remarks today by just simply quoting the song, "Yippie-yee-oh, yippie-yee-yee." You know, "Ghost Riders in the Sky" was that song that came up. You know, it is not the images. It is the words from the franchisees and the words that open it that I think say so much. The world moves forward. Progress shaped by work. It is the work of days, the work of years. It is the work of the few. It is the work of the many. It is the work of the skilled. Skilled. It is the work of the serious. It is the work of the makers, and it is the work of the fixers. We are Snap-on, and we are the people of that work. When Snap-on people hear these words, they recognize the truth of it.
They recognize that the video drips, you know, rings with truth and drips with emotion. It could not be done by anybody we would hire to do this. Like all our videos, this video was written and produced and directed by Snap-on people. I'd like us to recognize them here. Two of them are right here, Sam Bottomar, Chief Marketing Officer, and Bridget Correa. She's right back there sitting next to Andy Ginger. Stand up. Let's give them a round of applause. You know, I've been counseled by my attorneys to make you aware of the way in which you should, the lens through which you should review my look at my remarks today. I have to show this thing. It's called a, you know, kind of a questionnaire statement.
You're supposed to read it and understand and figure out how to view my remarks. Here it is. Okay? That's enough. All right. I'm going to start out by, one of the things we always start out, we start out every meeting at Snap-on with the idea, this poster. We call it the Declaration of Who We Are. One of the most important things of a corporation is to know who you are, and we know who we are. This poster is in every collective, every common meeting room in Snap-on, and it's in most individual rooms. It says things about us. It says our mission. We make the most valued productivity solutions in the world. It talks about our beliefs, visions, and values. We believe in safety. We believe in connecting with the customer. We believe in quality.
We believe in innovation, summoning the new out of this present. And we believe in getting up every day and figuring out how to do our jobs better and serve our customers better and move the world forward more effectively. We call it rapid continuous improvement. You're going to hear those words again today. We have certain values, and these are values, you know, they're not particularly unique. You know, they're kind of values that your mother should have taught you. And, you know, they're out of natural law for society and human beings. The idea that you tell the truth, you value integrity, you value teamwork, you respect people, and you listen to them. It's nothing special, but we want to put it up there so people know that this is how we live our lives. It's how everybody expects to live their lives.
We have a vision of ourselves. The vision of ourselves is simply to be the choice, the partner of choice for everybody we interact with. This is who we are, and it is at the core of our business. You know, 103 years ago, it sounds like a lot. No, although I was not here when it started. Yes, I know you are thinking that, but no, that was not the situation. We say it started with a spark, and the spark was an idea. Yes, it was. The idea was, and this was a time about 1920 when the auto industry was just starting. The idea was to revolutionize tool sets.
What it was was take five handles of different configurations, a lips, a T, a crank, and put them together with sockets of 10 different dimensions and fashion them so they snap on interchangeably. We said those five handles did the work of 50 tools, and it did. It was an innovation that revolutionized tool sets all over this country, and that tradition of innovation has been handed down to us. As is depicted in this, and you've heard me say this many times over, I think it's something important to start every conference here is that there were other ideas.
Some of the other founders got other ideas that said we should eschew the normal way to sell tools, that sell through a distributor, but to go right into the garage and talk to the mechanic and lay those tools out on green felt as if they were as precious as surgeon knives, treating them like the jewels they really are, implying that if the mechanic used these tools, he would declare to the world he was doing something special, perhaps as special as a surgeon. The idea that Snap-on, the Snap-on brand, your name, the company you're associated with is the outward sign of pride and dignity that working men and women take in their professional lives is at the core of what we do. It was the time of the founders. During the founders' time, you know, there were four founders.
One of the great things about Snap-on, contemporary Snap-on, is we have living links to the founders. The man who had the original idea, the original engineer who had the five work do the work of 50 idea, Joe Johnson. We have Greg and Kathy Johnson here with us. Greg, the grandson of Joe Johnson, and he actually was not only a link to the founder. He worked with us here at Snap-on. He was an associate for almost 30 years, being the Director of Financial Audit and the VP and Controller. The first President of Snap-on was Stanton Palmer. We have Patsy Callahan and her son, Andy, and his wife, Crystal, here with us. She is the granddaughter of Stanton Palmer. Living links to the founder. Please, ladies and gentlemen, please stand up. Let's give them a round of applause.
It's not everybody who has actually, thank you for coming. Because it's not common for companies, particularly public companies of this day, to have a living link, to have living links to their founders, to remind us of where we came from. Thank you for doing that. Every time you come here, you help us remember where we came from, and we appreciate it. It did start with a spark, and the spark was an idea. The idea forged a dream, and that dream was the Snap-on company. That dream shaped lives, and it reached across the country and the world. Some of the lives it shaped, we now call the makers and the fixers. These are the people that historians have said have led our or have raised and supported our country to ascendancy.
Certainly, they are the people who got us through the Great World War II, creating the industrial substrate that allowed us to win the one war we could not afford to lose. More recently, they stood their post firm, keeping our society from disintegrating while we engaged and defeated the COVID, the makers and fixers. We celebrate them. We celebrate our respect for the pride and dignity that they hold in their work. We enable them to accomplish the critical tasks that are so essential for our society. We do that, as the video sort of said, because we have insight and experience into what we do. This insight has been forged over decades. You can see it here. We have been turning out these hand tools for decades.
Our franchisees and our direct salesmen, way back to the man you saw standing next to the green felt, have been out there in the garages working with people, forged over decades, but it has also been sharpened by the new. We employ incredibly new things, like big data associated with our intelligent diagnostics. The idea of the precision that we employ in our torque wrenches enables all the autonomy we start to see in cars and the precision and efficiency we see in airplanes and wind towers and oil and gas platforms. All of that is because we have been guided by the work. Unlike almost any other company, we do not survey our customers. We do not survey them. We go into the workplace like the original founder, like the founders decided we should.
We observe the work, and we figure out how to make it easier, how to make the tasks easier. We see the tasks. We see the ones that are difficult, and we come out with tools that will make them easier. We do that whether it is in a garage with an aligner or up 300 feet in a wind tower. All of this, that insight and experience has created some pretty good strengths for us. Those strengths have allowed us over the years to have a characteristic which people talk about now on earnings calls and so on. We would say resilience. I want to show you a demonstration of Snap-on resilience in the numbers. Let's look up four years back, which includes the COVID. Let's look at sales. For example, before the COVID in 2019, sales were $3,730,000,000.
During the COVID, they came down some to $3.59 billion. After the COVID, 2021, boom, out in a V-shaped recovery to $4.25 billion. This past year, $4.49 billion, $4,490,000,000, almost $4.5 billion. This is resilience. You can see it in the operating income margin. This is the percent of sales that goes to profit, pre-tax profit. Before the COVID, it was 19%. By the way, just to go back, before the COVID, it was 19.2%, 19.2%. Then it went to 17.6% because COVID was a tough time, and everybody took a step back. Last year, 2020, it was 20%. The year after that, this year, last year, 2022, it was 20.9%. That means it was 90 basis points above 2021, and it was 120 basis points, 170 basis points above the pre-pandemic levels.
This is in an orb in which people celebrate 10 basis points improvement. Resilience indeed. If you look at the earnings per share, which includes the credit company and also takes out for taxes, you go all the way back to, you go back to 2019 before the pre-pandemic levels, it's $12.41. It went to $11.44. In 2021, it was $14.92. It was $16.82 at 2022. That $16.82 was up 12.7% year over year and up 35.5% over just three years ago. Resilience indeed. The people who helped us, everyone here in this room made that possible. I would like to recognize now some special people who played a major role in that resilience, and that is our management team. First, I want to introduce, from President Biden's hometown, Scranton, Pennsylvania, our Chief Financial Officer and my friend, Mr.
Aldo Pagliari. From Bengal, India, and Lake Forest, Illinois, our Chief Development Officer, Mr. Anup Banerjee. From the Jersey side of Philadelphia, and long-suffering fan of the, and now recently rewarded fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, Mr. Tom Ward, President of RS&I. From parts unknown, sometimes referred to as Iowa, we have the President of the Tools Group, Mr. Tim Chambers. From the Basque Country of Spain, the President of our Commercial Group, Mr. Jesus Aregi. The newly appointed President of our Repair Systems business, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and from these regions, and a holder of basketball records. I'll let you find out what it was. From Marquette University, Mr. John Wolf. For those of you who last year might remember a special event, last year we had someone beam in from quarantine in Shanghai.
This guy was in quarantine 17 times and a total during the COVID. Ready for this? Buckle up. 195 days. Think about that. In prison for 195 days. This is a place you'd go to a hotel and they lock the door and put your food underneath the door, and sheets came every seven days. Pretty difficult. You know, in the tradition of something called SNL, I want to say we have here, not on Zoom today, here at the Idea Forge, we have not on Zoom today, but live from the Forge, we have Mr. James Ong, the President of our Asia-Pacific operations. Now, you know, if you stood back and you knew our history, you would believe, actually, as we believed, that we were not going to be disrupted by the COVID or the great financial recession.
Because Snap-on, if you've attended these meetings for a long time, you can see that Snap-on has not only resilience, but it generally has great opportunity moving forward, great momentum. Look at this chart. This is a trend of sales and operating income. You look at the sales way back to what? 2000, we go back to 2011, $2.85 billion, $2,850,000, $2.94 billion, $3.06 billion, $3.28 billion, $3.35 billion, $3.43 billion, $3.69 billion, $3.74 billion, $3.73 billion. And then the aforementioned $3.59 billion, $4.25 billion, and $4.49 billion. If you look at the operating income back to 2000, now I remember when the operating income in 2006 was 6%, 2005, I think was 6.5%. It was way up in 2011, but, you know, 14.5%, then 15.2%, then 15.8%, then 16.6%, then 18.1%, then 19.3%, 19.3%, 19.4%, 19.2%. Again, the aforementioned 17.6% and 20.0% and 20.9%. These are quite records.
They show that if you looked at this, you would have known that we were going to come out of the COVID in a V. There are people who contributed to that. Some of our leaders, we like to say we have a legacy from our retirees. We have some representatives of former presidents. Everybody who knows me knows that I am the fortunate beneficiary of the work of greater predecessors. And relations, and some of them are here today. First of all, I'd like to introduce the daughter of our seventh president, Norm Lutz, who brought us to the New York Stock Exchange. He was the seventh president. She comes here every year almost. Susan Lutz Kenyon and her husband, Bill. Stand up, please. Stand up, please. Over here, right? Thanks for joining us again.
Now, a man of special importance to me, someone who gave us so much, gave us so much. He was the guy who reconnected us with the community and our retirees. He gave us who we are. He said, "You had to know who we are," and he was right. He coined the phrase, rapid continuous improvement. Of course, I'm talking about my former boss, my current counselor, and my ongoing friend, Mr. Jack Duane Michaels, right here. The legend returns. You know, and okay, you can look at that from the pre-tax point of view, but if you want to look at the after-tax and you want to look at EPS, you can see the numbers back to 2011, $4.71, $4.71, then $5.20, then $5.93, then $7.14, then $8.10, then $9.20, then $9.52, then $11.87, and the aforementioned $12.41, $11.44, $14.92, and $16.82.
We have other people who have worked on that. We have two more recent alumni. I want to say alumni, but actually retirees who have come back to us. Our former President of the Tools Group, my old friend, Mr. Tom Kasuch, and our former General Counsel, Mr. Irwin Scher. Please stand up, gentlemen. Thank you all. Welcome back. All of this, you know, I have to tell you that you might ask, how did we survive the COVID? You know, it's kind of a tough time. You know, everybody's kind of worried. People are masking and sheltering and distancing and eventually vaccinating. My secret, I never got it. My secret is, you know, I was always worried because of COVID, you know, you have symptoms, you cough, and you lose your taste. You lose your taste.
I tested every day at least once. This got me through it. Sometimes I had to test four or five times a day, you know. I hear it's back. All clear. Excuse me. Luckily, I didn't take a bigger piece. I almost did. You know, all of this comes together to reward our Shareholders. The reward of the Shareholders with our dividends. Look at the range of the realm of the dividends or the string of dividends. Back to 2011, $1.30, $1.40, $1.58, $1.85, $2.20, $2.54, $2.95, $3.41, $3.93, $4.47, $5.20, $5.11, and $5.88, up 14.1%. This dividend is one of the greatest things in terms of testimony to our resilience. You see, we started paying dividends in 1939. We have paid a dividend every quarter since that day.
We have paid a dividend every quarter since that day, and we have never, ever reduced it. This is among the longest record of uninterrupted, unreduced dividends on the New York Stock Exchange. People ask me, investors ask me all the time about what's your dividend policy. I do not give them any policy, but I say, well, how would you feel if the CEO, no one had ever reduced the dividend or ended it since 1939? I think you can figure how I stand on that. I do not want to be remembered as the guy who did reduce it or interrupted it. The people who have helped us in this regard, we have some more retirees that I would like to introduce you to. They are the people who both benefit from this and have helped us through these times.
Back here, I have Sharon Zack, 44 years with us, and her husband, Jim. Stand up, please. I have, and her son and daughter work for Snap-on, right? They work for Snap. Christy and Kurt, one works in the credit company, one works in the operating company. I have Craig Govacar, who has worked for diagnostics in a number of places and has had, I think, 43 years with Snap-on and has 38 patents for the company. Stand up, please, Craig. Now I want to introduce Ms. Charlotte Burgess, who was with us 36 years and was an HR administrator on our Eastern region. Charlotte, please stand up. I have a special relationship with Charlotte.
You know, when I came to Snap-on, I had been at other companies, Ford Motor Company, I had been at United Technologies, Carrier, I had been in Asia for a long time. I show up here. I am traveling around the country and I go to the East and I meet Charlotte. We start talking. I realize that we have the same accent. She lived in South Troy, New York, which is where I lived. As we started talking longer, I realized that when I was young, seven or eight, or let's say 10 or 11, and I was walking with my baseball glove and my baseball bat down to the local diamond, I passed her family's house. I knew some of her siblings. I remember her as a toddler.
What a great privilege it is to work with a company and realize you're working with somebody that you saw when Mickey Mantle was still your idol. Really, this is a great privilege. I feel pretty good about that. Thank you for being here, Charlotte. Okay, let's give her one more round of applause, please, just for me. Those are the sort of 2022 and trend numbers. Now I would like to talk about the way forward, you know. We have something called Runways for Growth and Runways for Improvement. Before I speak about them, I want to tell you that at Snap-on, we believe in power of place.
If you were at the groundbreaking out here with this building at our 100th anniversary, you would see that I said, "We have great respect and admiration and appreciation for the people of Kenosha, and we have always been supported by the people who lead the communities here." We have some of the community leaders here. We have John Anterani, the mayor. We have John Morsey, the city administrator. We have Samantha Kirkman, the county executive. We have my old friend, Tim Mahone, one of the community leaders. Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you for all your support. It means so much to us. A company cannot exist without the support of its community. Choosing your ground really makes a difference. We have benefited from having chosen Kenosha all those years ago. Thanks so much.
Okay, so we have something called Runways for Improvement. We call it Snap-on Value Creation. It actually is right on our who we are. These are our beliefs. We believe in safety. And why do we believe in safety? We're a public company. You know, well, you know, if you keep your people safe, you get more productivity. But that's the right thing to do. You don't want people to get hurt when they work for you. Also, small detail, if you make things for working men and women, if you can't keep your own people safe, what does that say about your capability? Right? Doesn't say much. So we're very proud because we've tried to work on this. We're proud but unsatisfied about our safety, I should say. We'd like to see it better.
Certainly it's not too bad because over the last 15 years, since 15 years ago, Snap-on people are 90% less likely to have an accident than they were all that years ago. Every year we try to make it better. Last year, there were 84 of our 103 sites who had no lost-time accidents. Safety. We believe in safety. We believe in quality. There's a lot of ways to measure quality. You know, but we'd like to get the response of our customers. So we have a couple of quotes up here. Gary Mereria, you know, from New Jersey, an auto tech from New Jersey. He says, "The best feeling is when you use your new Snap-on tool." Marlene Cornis, an aircraft engineer from Austria, of all places, she says, "My Snap-on screwdriver, my Snap-on screwdriver is my favorite tool.
I carry it everywhere with me." These are nice testimonies. They speak to the quality of our product. Beyond that, the actual name, not even associated with the product itself, you can see the images. I show these every year, but I show them again because I'm proud of them. Every year I get pictures of people who put our wrenches or our tools in the hands of their babies because they believe that Snap-on is a strong influence and it will influence the baby's life for the good. We see birthday cakes and wedding cakes and celebration cakes of all kinds. Unbelievably, still, people put ashes of their loved ones in Snap-on boxes. Quality indeed. Now, you know, we do say it started with a spark, and the spark was an idea, an idea forged a dream, and a dream shaped lives.
We say we are the stewards of that spark. Most importantly, we are the keepers of that dream. I have some long-standing employees out here who are still associates with us that I'd like to recognize because they are the quintessential keepers of the Snap-on dream. Back here, I have Kurt Sauer, who's been with us 43 years. He is the Vice President, Director of Manufacturing Process in the Tools Group. He's here with his wife, Susan. Stand up, Kurt. Let's give them a round of applause. John Furyk, been with us 44 years, the father of many of our power tools. Every time you pick up a power tool, the chances are John Furyk's had his fingerprints on it. John, stand up. Give him a round of applause. I have an IT administrator named Louise Pitch.
She's been with us 49 years. Louise, stand up. The keepers of the dream. We have our Snap-on Value Creation, the things we believe in, safety, quality, and then we believe in customer connection. What this means is we do not survey the customer. We go right into the garage or right on top of the windmill tower, 300 feet in the air to observe the work. We go on the flight line. We do this with 4,700 franchisees, multiple direct sales forces. We are in 700 garages doing this all over the country. We garner $2.5 billion data events from garage work orders based on our digital presence in the garages. We are in 3,700 technical schools. Every year, more than 4,000 people visit this place where we can interact with them over their work. Customer connection is one of our key things that drive us forward.
The insights gained allow us to have innovative new tools where we, as I said many times today, we bring tools and we summon the future out of what we see today. If you see this, it seems to be working okay. Because I've shown you a rate of tools here, but you know we have dozens and dozens of $1 million tools every year. We launch dozens of new tools every year. We have 85,000 SKUs. We are recognized for it. Motor magazine named us in their Motor Top 20 among these tools shown here. P10, the Professional Tools and Equipment News, named us as winners of their innovation awards. Most importantly, P10 does a survey of all technicians, and they voted our tools as the best. This all comes from engineering.
I've got a bunch of engineers here that I'd like you to recognize. Ben Kicinna, who is from Rochester Hills. One of the things we showed the board yesterday, one of the things we had to do during the downturn was not invent new products. It was somehow we couldn't get certain chips and certain components, and we had to find alternate designs on a hurry-up basis so we could actually ship. Ben Kicinna allowed us to ship 30,000 products. His project won the Grand Champion in our RCI conference this year. Next in, we have Ken Munson, who has not worked with us that long, but he's the guy who customized the tools so we could get the F-35 again, one of the greatest planes being built in the world, and we do the exclusive tools for us.
We have John Anderson from the tools group, who designed the 56-ounce ball peen hammer that has low shock and won one of our innovation awards. Next to them, we have Nate Lee, who is the Chief Engineer for all our torque designs. Gentlemen, please stand up. Let's give them a round of applause. Safety, quality, customer connection, innovation, and then, of course, rapid continuous improvement, getting up every day and figuring out how to do our jobs better. You might say, "How do we know it really works?" Go back to 2000. I think we got here 2005. In 2005, the sales were, I mean, the operating income was 6.5%. The sales were $2.28 billion, I think. You roll forward to 2022, and the sales are $4.49 billion, but the operating earnings, the OI margin was 20.9%.
In other words, over that time, 1,440 basis points, 1,440 basis points of operating margin improvement. This is in a world where people love 10. Rapid continuous improvement really does work, and it is the fuel for us going forward. Just a little aside, which we do not have a slide about, if you think back, we showed the earnings per share in 2011. I think it was $4.71. The earnings per share in 2005 was $1.89. The earnings per share last year was $16.82, almost four times what it was in 2011, just in that period of time, 11 years. And 10 times what it was early. Rapid continuous improvement. Thank you, Jack Michaels. Okay, those are the Runways for Growth. We get up and we work on those processes every day to make it improve. It is the table stakes of what we do.
You have to say, "You have to grow in your organization," and it's true. I'd like you to just walk with me a little bit. We had a heritage, a heritage view of ourselves. We made great tools. We sold them through the vans to auto mechanics. We did it great. This was just a narrow description of what we actually did. If we step back and try to define truly who we are, you get a little different picture. What you realize is part of what I've been telling you the whole time here. We observe work. We go into the workplace. We observe work. We get insights out of that. We configure tools. We innovate and get tools that will make work easier.
We can sell those tools, yes, through the vans, but we can sell them through distributors and through direct salesmen. We do sell them to auto mechanics, but we can sell them actually to any professional, any working man and woman who's a professional, who is working on a critical task that is a task where the penalty for failure is high and the need for repeatability and reliability justifies a Snap-on level tool or product. This is a new view of ourselves. In that new view, we've added a number of brands. I think we have 16 brands up here. You can see the Snap-on brand. We're not really a branded house. We're a house of brands. We have the Snap-on brand, but we also have a brand from Europe, Baco.
In Europe, when they want an adjustable wrench, they say, "Give me the Baco." Our people there say that, actually, in the United States, they say, "Give me the Crescent wrench." The people in Baco say the Crescent wrench got its idea from Baco. Maybe so because the dates line up. We added that. Down here in the lower right for you, we added a new brand a while ago, three or four years ago, called Carliner. Now it is the number one brand in the hottest portion of auto repair, which is collision. The new range of sensors, the new array of sensors around the periphery of a car, has made collision a very important part of auto repair. You can see this. Go ahead. Snap-on most value, this is what we are trying to portray here, is our value-creating mechanism.
We show the processes, some of the software we use to develop product. We are showing our patent wall, which I invite you to visit afterwards, the 3,244 patents listed there. What this says is just what I told you before. Our principal value-creating mechanism is we observe the work, get an insight, learn how to develop a tool that will make work easier for someone who is operating on a critical task. The important point about this, the important point about this is that I did not mention a particular product. This can be a wrench or a piece of software or a database or an aligner or a collision product. I did not mention a technology. It can be software or hardware. I did not even mention an industry. Because it is any industry that is critical.
This is what makes Snap-on such a great company and what allows us to continue to grow. We are not just limited to one place. We have a lot of places where we can add value. We shall as we go forward. Therefore, we get to our Runways for Growth. Now, before I go on the Runways for Growth, let me just say that you cannot grow. We have up here, enhance the van channel, expand with repair shop owners and managers, extend to critical industries, and build in emerging markets. These are all coherent runways, which all depend on criticality. You cannot really expand unless you have a great base and you have continual new people coming in.
One of the great sources, why we love the power of place here, why we think Kenosha is a tremendous place is it's got great schools. Feeders for us, schools that turn out our new people that keep reinventing Snap-on and re-energizing our population of associates. We have some representatives of those schools here today. We have Carmel Ruffalo from Marquette. We have Rita Roger, the president of Gateway Technical College, up the street. We have my old friend, Debbie Ford, soon to leave us. I'm very sorry you're leaving us, Debbie, from Parkside. We have John Swallow from Carthage College. Please stand up, everybody. Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you so much. Actually, this is true. If you don't believe this is true, ask somebody. When China was the darling of investments, people would invest in China.
One of the things they would say always was, "Well, it didn't work out." The reason it didn't work out is they didn't have educated people nearby. This is the problem. You'd find this in certain places. You'd make choices. We made a great choice in 1920 when we came here. We have our Runways for Growth. Let's talk about them. Enhance the van channel. Enhancing the van channel, it's pretty sure. What are we going to do about the van channel? We're going to keep driving the metrics and make sure our franchisees are more healthy than ever. I can tell you today, when you look at those metrics, you know they're stronger than they have ever been. We're going to work on franchisee productivity because we don't expand our franchisees.
We've decided we have 3,700 franchisees, and they are our people, and we are going to rise or fall with them. To the extent we go higher, we need to have them more productive. We're going to give them better products that can match the changing complexities in the market today. We're going to try to work with them so that the sales processes on their van get more effective. We're going to expand with repair shop owners and managers. These are customers. The technicians sell to, I mean, the franchisees sell to technicians, to the guys who actually toil the wrench. The repair shop owners and managers sell to somebody who stands right next to them. They're the owners and the managers of the shop. We're going to leverage our understanding of the garage more and more. Tom Ward can tell you about this forever.
If you want to talk to him, he'll give you a deep briefing, maybe 30 minutes afterwards. Look, we're going to leverage our activities. We're going to try to teach them how to wield the technologies and to manage their business better because some of these are very small businesses. We're going to integrate their progress to try to make it stronger around us. We're going to keep giving them more. We're going to get more and more to sell them to make them move forward. You see, if you think about it, generally, we're talking about dealerships and independent shops. Independent shops have trouble meeting the complexity. We arm them with the capability to do that. We're going to extend to critical industries. This is rolling the Snap-on brand out of the garage. Because remember, I said, it's not only automotive repair.
It's other things like wind and oil and gas and aviation and the military. They're all critical. I mean, think about it. In the military, if the 50-caliber bullets are flying overhead, I think the repair is critical. And we provide that. We're going to reach out to more of those. That business grew at 19% the last quarter. It's growing. We're going to reach out to more of that. We're going to reach out to more. We're going to learn more about the work, visiting the sites more, and therefore leading to more products that will expand our business there. We are going to enhance the van channel, expand with repair shop owners and managers, extend to critical industries, and we are going to build in emerging markets. All that means is, since they're all emerging and it's all fertile ground, building a manufacturing capability.
We make in the markets where we sell. If you're going to sell in any place, like India or China or other places, you've got to make in those markets, and we'll have the manufacturing. We're going to build the sales network because you actually got to sell. One of the disadvantages of trying to build a business there is you actually have to sell. In the case of, say, like India or China, we're going to Asianize the product to fit the local customers. This is what we will do. I think we have good opportunities to do this. If you see the growth going forward, we have some things that drive us forward, that encourage us that we're going to be able to grow.
First is, if you want to just roll back to cars, it's the aging of the car park. Look at this. If you go back to earlier, in 2001, I think, car park was 9 years old, 9.5 years old. It's now 12.2 years old. If you watch the red line, it's gotten older every year almost. It just gets older. It's arithmetic. Older cars need more repair. We think this is a good thing for us. We believe this will be good. If you step back and you look at the day, I kind of say this is the golden age of car repair. We're on the edge of the golden age of car repair. I believe it is.
If you look up here, you'll see that I don't have the numbers up here, but it says that people are investing almost double digits more in repairing their car than they did just a year ago. The wages for technicians are going up high single digits. And the number of technicians, which used to be growing at 0.5% or 1%, are growing faster than ever, like in mid-single digits. So in fact, that business is growing just with the aging of the car park, but it's being driven by something else. Cars get more complex. Now, everybody knows that you're going to have electric cars. But electric cars are going to drive our business more because you're going to have internal combustion on the road at the same time as electric cars are going to need more tools.
Another thing, just think about the autonomy in your car. We talked about this. There is something called ADAS, Advanced Driver Assist Systems. These are things like lane departure warnings or blind spot detectors. They are driven by an array of sensors around the periphery. Every time you damage one of those, anytime you break, you get a crack in your windshield. Every time you bang your bumper, when you take it to the garage, check the bill. You will find out that things are getting more complex. There are more and more opportunities in this direction. Now, one of the things to take advantage of all this is, as I said about the schools, you have to have new people.
I have some of the new people here that I want to introduce to you that are going to help us and propel us into this future, of course, being helped by the universities and the schools that have provided them to us. I have today Jada Peters, who's been with us a couple of years, and she's in marketing, and she went to Parkside. I have Tina Beam, who is an engineer and industrial, who also has been with us around two years. She went to Platteville, University of Wisconsin Platteville. I have Brandon Ronning, who went to Dayton, not one of our local schools, but is our plant controller in Milwaukee. I have Grant Fisher, who went to Carthage and also went to law school in Marquette, and he's part of our legal department. Please stand up, ladies and gentlemen.
Let's give them a round of applause, the new generation here. All right. Go ahead. I showed the trends. I showed 2022. You might ask, is it continuing? Because when you turn on the TV shows or you read the paper and you listen to the financial community, you think you've beheld a number of modern-day Paul Reveres. The recession is coming. The recession is coming. The recession is coming. They've been saying it for months. It ain't coming here yet. If you look at the first quarter results, you see, look at these numbers. Organic sales in the first quarter up 10.2%. 10.2%. If you look at the OI margin, 22%. 22%. Up 170 basis points over last year. As I said on the call, boom, Jack-A-Laca. That's quite a number. Then we had the EPS of $4.60, up 15% year over year.
In effect, if you look at the first quarter, things are accelerating. I'm not saying it's going to continue, but things are looking pretty good now. We've got a lot of momentum. I'd just like to introduce three people who specially contributed to this quarter because one of the stars was our equipment business. Our equipment business. I'd like to introduce from Conway, Arkansas, Steve Rogers, from Louisville, who's one of our engineers in the liner business. I'd like to introduce from Louisville, Kentucky, and actually lived here for a while. Steve Rogers has been with us, I think, 43 years or 36 years. I think Brian Spikes from Louisville, Kentucky, the plant manager of our lift business down there. He's been with us 23 years. And then ahead of all this, with us 33 years, Mr.
Gino Amador, who uniquely has worked for Snap-on on four different continents. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your contribution in the first quarter. Stand up, please. That is sort of my story. I have kind of run out of slides. Look, this is a great company. Unique and special. It is special because, of course, our founding and the idea that we know who we are. It is also special because we wield tremendous insight, great insight and experience forged over decades, sharpened by the new and guided by the work. This is why we are able to succeed. Because we are able to bring to bear all those things. We are a company that is resilient. You can see it in the four I showed. $3.73 billion, $730 million of sales before the COVID goes down to $3.59 billion, comes up to $4.25 billion, and then goes to $4.49 billion. Resilient indeed.
We have been able to, you saw the trends going all the way from 14.5% OI margin in 2011 up to 20.9% last year. That has been guided by great management through the resilience and some of my great predecessors along that range of trend. You see, you can see it in the numbers. You can see it in those numbers. In 2022, sales were up organically. Sales of $4.49 billion, $4 billion, $490 million, almost $4.5 billion. Profitability, 20.9%, up 90 basis points over last year and up 170 basis points over the pre-pandemic levels. The EPS, the EPS of $16.82, up year over year by 12.7% and up 35.5% over pre-pandemic levels. You can see it is continuing. You can see it is continuing into 2000 and into the first quarter of 2023.
Sales up 10.2%, OI margin of 22%, up 170 basis points year over year, and $4.60, up another 15%. These are gigantic numbers. I would sort of want to end how I started. Your company, the Snap-on company, your company, our company has never been, never been, never been stronger. They have never been stronger. The voices in the videos, the voices in the video, and the numbers across the page defining the results, they all say it so. One final point. This is all because of the people in this room. You have contributed to this. For all of that, for your contributions to this great record, this encouraging record, you have my congratulations, and you have my thanks. Now we're going to take questions. Let's have some questions. Do we have any questions? I guess the Bucks questions are off the table.
All right. Our first question will come from Andy Ginger.
Morning, Nick.
Morning, Andy.
You've been a strong spokesperson for manufacturing for a long time. If you think about U.S. manufacturing and what's going on with the current economic and workforce conditions, what's your take on all of that?
Look, I think this is a great time for manufacturing. And it should be. I think there's a question. I tried to touch it in my remarks. There is a question is, how is it that America was ascendant over all the countries in the Western world when they kind of shot off the gun at the same time like 400 years ago? And historians have said, without equivocation, without question, without qualification, that it's because in America, we from sea to shining sea have had makers and fixers, people who could do things. This is how we ascended to where we were. This is how we won the great World War II. It's because we had this industrial substrate that allowed us to make three times as many warplanes in one year in 1942 than the Axis powers made over three or four years.
People like Rosie the Riveter and Wendy the Welder and her colleagues working in the factories. Actually, if you think about it, this is how we got through the COVID. If you doubt that, and I think people appropriately were sheltering in place, but when they were sheltering in place, when you hit the switch on your lights, did they come on? When you ordered food, was it there? When you bought something on Amazon, did it occur? Did it come? When you bought something on Amazon, it was delivered by a truck driver who could not work from home but was standing their ground. You see, the essential workers are actually the backbone of the country. I think coming out of this, people have started to see it. We were in a little bit of a political platform here, I suppose, but it is not partisan.
I mean, the point is, I think for a while, we were shifting jobs away, our economy away from being an economy of creation to an economy of transaction. More people went into financial services. Nothing wrong with financial services. But financial services employ 7% of the people in the U.S. They generate 25% of the profits. Manufacturing is the opposite. No wonder for a period of time we thought we had income inequality. That is the basis of this. For a while, we said, "Oh, isn't it great? We can get cheaper products from shipping stuff outside the United States." That is what we did. It really came out of the last great inflation. When inflation hit and the wage price spiral started, Ford Motor Company, where I worked and other places, fled America because they wanted to reduce their costs.
They built those, built places elsewhere, and imported things and created these great supply chains, which got more and more efficient, driving costs down and down and down. We had less and less manufacturing. People did not quite notice because the goods kept getting cheaper. Then comes the COVID, and it is like throwing dirt into a fine-tuned machinery. It stopped everything. Those supply chains did not work. We realized how important it was to have short supply chains and how essential manufacturing was to us. I think now we are starting to bring manufacturing back. We should. I had dinner in Chicago the other night about three or four months ago. The industrials at the table said they all wanted to open factories in America, but they could not find the people.
That's why we need good schools to generate the people and to give them the skills, not necessarily of tomorrow, but of today. The National Association of Manufacturers says there are 686,000 jobs open right now. We can't find people to fill them. We need to upskill the American workforce and be able to fill them. If we do, America will prosper. Because the strength of America has always been the makers and fixers. We don't want to be in a situation where kind of lightly and glibly countries like China or other places send us cars and we send them poetry. We don't want to do that. America is a people who has always risen or fallen on the ability of our people to do things. This is manufacturing. It is the quintessential American occupation. I'm glad to see it starting to expand. Other questions?
Next question is going to be from Bud Clark.
Bud Clark. Looking sharp, Bud.
Thank you. Good morning. It looks like there are some tool companies that are closing factories here in the U.S. What are we doing with our plants here in the U.S.?
Actually, we just talked about this yesterday with the board of directors. We're expanding a number of our plants. Milwaukee is expanding. Algona is increasing its capacity. Elizabethton is increasing its capacity. Conway is expanding. I think you would say that we're not among those that are contracting. We are building almost across the board because we have demand. Actually, like I said, I really meant it. I think this is the golden age of auto repair. Even if it goes down, we want to be ready for the next income. Because we have belief in the American economy. I don't think even if it goes down, it's not going to be there for that long. We are going to be ready when it comes back. I'm anticipating that it won't go down. If it does, we manage through it.
Expanding here is because we have a great market here. We need the capacity. That is what we are doing. We spend a lot of money in all of those places. We are spending varying money in all those places. We are doing it because we have faith in America. Sometimes, I think people wonder. I had this the other day on Bloomberg. They said, "Gee, will not making in America increase costs?" I said to the interviewer, "You think? It will increase costs for a time because the change will make it more expensive." I believe Americans prefer to have good jobs and be able to afford more expensive products. By the way, eventually, through rapid continuous improvement, you catch up. You drive those costs down. That is what happens. We believe that will work for us.
Some people say, "I'm not sure we should invest in manufacturing here because the American worker is a question." I say the American worker is not the question. The American worker is the answer. All we need is schools to educate more and more of them. This is why we take upskilling the American workforce as our social cause because we think it's more important to the future American. I see no path to ongoing prosperity in America without continuing the upskilling and continuing to expand manufacturing. Okay, next.
Right here, Nick.
Where?
We have Steve Reeves.
Oh. Okay. I have a question, and you touched on it. Thank you. Briefly.
Briefly about electric cars.
Oh, electric cars. As you know, I'm one of the many people here at Snap-on that drive electric cars.
I wouldn't have used the word many, but okay.
It's growing more.
You are one of those people who drive electric cars. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with electric cars, just some of the drivers.
I was wondering, what's Snap-on's plans to come up with ways to repair and ever? It's changing constantly. What's Snap-on doing about that? What are the plans?
Look, actually, what I tried to communicate here was that change is good for us. We're in the shops. We see the task change, and we make new tools for it. I mean, if you think about it, okay, let's say hand tools. We sold more hand tools last year than ever before. How did that happen? We guarantee hand tools for life. By the way, we have a big share of the market. We guarantee the products for life. How is it we have any business at all? The reason is because it's really because the cars keep changing. Even though you bought the ratchet last year that was going to fix a certain car, new cars like electric cars are going to need different stuff.
Now, electric cars, one of the things no one knows exactly what, so that's one of the reasons why we bought DealerFX. DealerFX does the repair shop software. In other words, they provide the software that manages the repair shop for dealerships. The first place you see what's going to go wrong in cars is in a dealership because people bring them into a dealership first around warranty. We get to see that. One of the things we're seeing about electric cars is our early opportunities are the batteries. You can't get them out of there without a special lift. If you think about it, you lift from underneath the car. If you got a normal lift there, you're not going to be able to drop the battery if there's a problem. You need a whole new set of lifts. We love it.
You need a bunch of insulating tools. You poke around there with those batteries, you're going to fry yourself if you're not careful. You're going to need some insulating tools. The whole idea of charging stations, the dealerships don't know how to put them in place. We're helping them with contracting. More and more of that is going to happen. You're going to need to manage the air conditioning systems because the batteries aren't going to work so well if your air conditioner breaks down in hot weather. We're going to see that as it comes through in the business, as things change. Basically, what we do is we observe the work. What that says is, as cars break down, as there's difficulties, we see what will repair them more effectively.
Every time a new car comes out, it generates more product for us, really. It is a very interesting thing. That is why we have a business. Our business keeps growing because the number of new cars keep coming out. Now, electric cars, you may think electric car and electric car and electric car, but in reality, they are all different. They skin the cat. Each manufacturer skins the cat in different ways. They are going to need different tools for each manufacturer. This is the way new technology occurs. Anytime new technology rolls out, it usually does not roll out in coherent ways. You see that.
Plus, something we do not hear about much in the United States is in China last year, which has more electric-powered vehicles than any place else in the world, probably the highest growing on a % basis was plug-in hybrids, where you have a smaller battery that allows you to drive, say, 50 mi, and there is an internal combustion engine. In that car, you are going to need both types of tools to manufacture, to service it. On top of it, the electric cars tend to depend on the autonomy, and that requires more tools to deal with it, hardware and software. That is why I think it is the golden age of automotive repair. You have one, you have the car park growing in internal combustion. Two, you have new powertrains rolling out, whether it is plug-in hybrid, regular hybrid, or electric vehicles.
You have overlaid on top of this all this drive to autonomy, which requires more and more difficult repair. When you go to your garages, these guys, the mechanics, aren't necessarily schooled in all of this complex repair. We are ready to put them right on target for a fee. Okay. Who else? Yes.
This is going to be our last question from Leslie Sapansky.
Leslie Sapansky.
You talked about bringing Snap-on out of the garage. Can you expand on this?
Sure. I think I said that our principal value creating mechanism is to observe the work and take that insight and create a tool that'll solve problems for critical industries. Boy, there's auto repair, which is critical. If you don't think auto repair is critical, just try to leave your car there for like three weeks. You'll think it's critical. I think that's one. If you think about it, oil and gas is critical. You kind of like to heat or light your house. Military is critical. As I said, 50-caliber bullets are a great incentivizer. Things like mining are critical. You don't want to be down a mile underground when things go wrong and it isn't working correctly. Aviation, you don't want to be on a plane if everything isn't working well. All of this is critical.
The penalty for failure is high, and we can take advantage of it. That is the industrial business. That is the warehouse back here that is making increasingly more customized kits for all those businesses. We believe in this business. Like I said, it went up 19% in a quarter, in the first quarter. You can believe that one as an indication of how good the business is or how we feel it is going to be important. All you have to do to really get a feel for how much we think this business is going to be strong is to go out the store, straight out the door, and then take a 90-degree right and look at the Snap-on sign on that building. We built it here in Kenosha for the industrial business.
We believe in rolling the Snap-on brand out of the garage and increasing it to looking like a great bet. Okay, I guess that's the last question. Thank you all for those questions. Look. Not you, Steve. That was weak. Weak. Steve's a fan of basketball. He gave me two tips for the NCAA tournament. Not good. First of all, to bet on a team in the tournament, they should be in the tournament. This is a problem. Okay. Look, my friends, I'd just like to take a moment to reflect about our corporation. It is, I've said many times this today, but I want to say it again one last time. It is a great company. Unique and special.
Founded 103 years ago on a special principle, the respect for the dignity of work, a timeless principle, and enlisted in a cause enabling critical activities, critical people, working men and women who work on critical tasks. Something that was relevant when our founders were here and is relevant today. It's a company that has demonstrated incredible resilience come heck or high water. We seem to have done okay based on our leaderships, based on our associates, based on our capabilities. One of the reasons why we said we've never been stronger. One of the reasons why it is is we have certain decisive advantages. These are things in good times and bad, we keep nurturing our product.
Authored by connecting with the customer in the garage and given shape by innovation that enables, without a doubt, without any question, people will say it enables them to perform the critical tasks. Our brand, it's a special brand. Respect it. Sought. A brand that instills and bestows pride and dignity that marks the special, the professional, and the serious like no other. We have people, our associates, but all of you in this audience, but certainly the associates, challenged, tested, and fully committed. We have advanced because of our strengths in product and brand and people. We say this all over our literature. In fact, it is true. You can see it written across the numbers. It all comes back to it kind of comes back to you ask yourself, what's a corporation? What should we expect from a corporation?
One of the things I want to tell you is I want you to look at these remarks in this context. What do you expect from a corporation? A corporation is an organization, a collective organization in which people come together to create a benefit for themselves and others, which they could not create individually. Here at Snap-on, that works. We are the beneficiaries of the fact that we have the confidence of our investors, the commitment of our associates, the conviction of our franchisees, the faith of our customers, the support of our communities. Yes, we have the legacy of our retirees. To the extent we reach higher all your retirees, we stand on your shoulders. It all comes back to something we know. The world we know. The world we know.
The way we move, where we live, the cities we raise, the energies we wield, the hopes we hold, and the dreams we dare are all shaped by work. We are the people of that work. That is why I'm so enlisted in the idea of manufacturing. It is quintessential work. This is why our company succeeds, because work is essential. And we are generating benefit for ourselves. I hope you all feel that. And we're generating benefit for others. You can see it in the words of that tech from Jersey. There's no better feeling than holding my new Snap-on tool. This is value for others. Coming back to the video, this value, the world is evolving, and we are part of it, and we are enabling it. It's progress. It's pride. It's dignity. It's dreams. It's lives. It's Snap-on. It's all of you.
We make a difference, and you know it's true. You see, this is a company with an historic past, an exciting now, and a promising future. It's all what you have authored. You have been part of it. You are part of it, and you will be part of it. You know that's true. For me, I would say that you have made a contribution. For your contributions, I congratulate you for their success, and I thank you for their success. For allowing me, as we move this company forward, this collective forward, it's my great privilege. My great privilege and a fulfillment of my dreams to be part of it all with all of you. For that, I thank you all. Thanks so much.