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Port Washinton Plant CLOSING!!


mwells

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We just recieved a news letter from briggs and stratton saying that the Port Washington plant is closing. They say, " but in the end it cane down to realigning our manufactureing footprint with our capacity requirements." Were guessing its because they have to many places to assemble lawn and garden tractors.
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I'd guess non-union labor in the much larger Snapper plant in Georgia that was running at about 75% of its capacity -- if that... Snapper ramped up production capability significantly to support its Walmart contract, then couldn't operate at a profit at the prices Walmart was paying, and very nearly went out of business -- before Simplicity bought them and pulled them out of the Walmart contract... Sad to see -- lots of history in Port Washington plant, plus a lot of investment in new tooling, robotic welders, new powder-coating paint lines, etc....
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I mentioned something about this to my local dealer today and he wasn't aware of it. He said mower sales are very slow because of gas prices, he was selling a tractor a day but is now down to a tractor a week, but of the brands he sells :white outdoor, landpride, husquavarna, Simplicity is still his biggest seller. Hopefully it won't be assimilated into Snapper as some have mentioned. I do wonder if this will drive more parts into unavailability as the Wisconsin plant had the tooling to make parts for the large frame tractors.
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quote:
Originally posted by Chris727
Hopefully it won't be assimilated into Snapper as some have mentioned.
Worse yet would be to see Simplicity bastardized as MTD did with Cub Cadet and Bolens. Bolens has been reduced to a rebadged MTD, as have the lower end Cub Cadets. Since Briggs owns Murray/Dynamark, it wouldn't surprise me to see Murray's with Simplicity badging at Wal-Mart sometime in the future. That would be ultimate insult.
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