Company History

Based in Devon, South West of England, KDP Tools Ltd is a family-run handtool importing and wholesaling business with over 40 years of experience in the tool trade and is the sole importer and owner of Toolzone brand products. We have an extensive range of hand tools and hardware, covering a wide variety of trades, from automotive to carpentry and plumbing to gardening. Based at a 20,000-square-foot unit with containers arriving on a regular basis, there is a large percentage of products in stock at any one point. We can supply to the whole of the UK, Ireland, and Europe (and further), either large palletized or smaller parcel deliveries. The minimum picked order value starts at £100 + VAT. For carriage paid orders please enquire. A fully priced showroom is available Monday to Friday 9 am to 6 pm.

KDP Tools Ltd does not retail to the general public/end user, so we are not chasing your customers. Proof of retailing is required before access to pricing is allowed.

Where did we come from you ask? Here is a brief précis of our history.

Stephen King started as a market trader in August 1980, with a Mini Traveler and £400 worth of stock, at Tiverton Pannier Market, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. As he became busier he asked his brother Malcolm to help out and so S & M King was born. The number of markets expanded, adding more and more working hours to the week. These included Highbridge, Weston-super-Mare, Barnstaple, Honiton, South Molton, Minehead, Seaton, Bath, Torquay, Yeovil, Haldon Hill, Bridport markets, and others.

In 1991, due to security issues (cloud with a silver lining!), they moved into their first unit in Tiverton, and KDP Tools was formed. With the spare space that was available, they decided to start wholesaling. This, like the markets, started small, just buying a few more of each item than they required, but like the markets, this took off in a big way with their enthusiasm and hard-working ethic. The markets slowly finished as the wholesale grew, with the last market at Highbridge in September 1997.

In 1996, Alison joined the team and in Easter 1999, having outgrown the unit, KDP moved to much larger premises, still in Tiverton, and became a Limited company.

In 2002, again with the extra space available, we started importing containers from Taiwan, China, and India. The Toolzone brand name was chosen and developed to give KDP an identity. Now the current Toolzone brand stands at over 1800 items. Full computerization was undertaken in January 2007 to streamline the invoicing and ordering processes.

With the growth of the Internet, it was decided that Toolzone/KDP needed an internet presence on the wholesaling front. With the usual dedication from the KDP team and a great deal of help from Nexus, our website is now here. We hope you find it a useful additional tool for ordering and seeing new products as quickly as we can get them on the website. New tools such as a stock feed and a quick order favorites section have now been added, and the website is on a single-use server. This has increased the speed of use. 

2014 has seen further expansion into larger premises at Willand. This will give KDP Tools Ltd room to grow, with new product lines and more storage space.

We thank you for all your support during the past 43 years and we are looking forward to trading with you in the future.