Briggs & Stratton files for Chapter 11

Shame.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/b...s-pandemic-weighs-on-business-2020-07-20

That is a shame. Quality products. Lots of pressure from Chinese PREDATORS, and of course battery powered everything these days.

Death by a thousand cuts.

Some are pretty deep. Like 130,000+ people dead without firing a shot.

But, Horror Freight is doing great so who cares.

Briggs killed themselves many years ago. I was a professional landscaper from 1969-82 and I used up lots of Briggs motors. Honda came along and their products would last three or four times longer with zero problems for about the same cost. Briggs refused to change. Now there are lots of other brands besides Honda that are better than Briggs and they still have not brought up their quality. They just don’t last as long and they made them cheap. I won’t own another Briggs product the rest of my life. They’d still be in business if they made a piece that would compete with a Honda. I kept my last Snapper and put a Honda on it when I stopped mowing commercial. I’ve had it for 25 years. Starts first pull. I would have had three or four Briggs motors on it by now.

its sad, but very true.

Yeah but Honda is turning to crap also. Bought a replacement carb for my Honda generator. Now made in China. Surface finish was so bad on the flanges you could use it as a file. It was off scale on my profilometer which means it was above 150 microinches Ra and the original was like 15 microinches Ra average.

You think we would learn as a nation that China does not give a rats A$$ about America other than to see how much money they can con us out of.

Yeah the last time I bought a nice mower the sales guy told me to pay a little more for a Honda engine. He said that Briggs wasn't very good quality anymore. I'm not surprised, I've watched a lot of American companies kill themselves over the last 40 years by short cutting quality and skimping on engineering. They all paid big bonuses to themselves on the way down though!

https://www.jsonline.com/story/mone...-files-bankruptcy-protection/5470618002/



"KPS has a proven track record of investing in manufacturing facilities and operating them profitably and sustainably," Steelworkers President Tom Conway said in a statement.

Retirees, on the other hand, are losing their supplemental health and life insurance.

On Sunday, Briggs' board of directors voted to terminate the group insurance plan for retirees. "Your health and life insurance coverage (under the plan) will end on August 31, 2020. Any eligible claims incurred on or before August 31 will be covered by the plan," the company said.



The company warned that its losses, the pandemic and pending debt payments raised substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. Yet in June, while it skipped a $6.7 million interest payment, the company awarded its executives and other key employees more than $5 million in cash retention awards.

Such awards are often given before a company files for bankruptcy.

"Whether you like the management team or not, they likely get to stay in place for the foreseeable future," Hayes said.

Quote

The company warned that its losses, the pandemic and pending debt payments raised substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. Yet in June, while it skipped a $6.7 million interest payment, the company awarded its executives and other key employees more than $5 million in cash retention awards.

Such awards are often given before a company files for bankruptcy.

Therein lies the problem with this "SYSTEM" that is in place. The excutives should be stripped of those BONEUSUS and jailed. Their property including that which has been hidden should also be forfeited.

Same thing should have been done in 2008 but it wasn't

My son worked at the local Briggs& Stratton factory for several years. They would hire any crack head that would show up. Fire them and hire more. Quality was dropping and the work environment was getting very poor. I was told that they have a few MILLION engines locally warehoused everywhere around here. No buyers for them but they keep cranking them out. I'm glad he left a few years ago. You could see the writing on the wall.

..and the Stock Market continues to rise. Mom & Pop stores & restaurants closing permanently, I just can't fathom that the Market can't see how the financial cliff we IMHO are headed for: There's only been the stimulus supporting consumer spending... it isn't an increase in revenue, value or equity that justifies the continuing rise.

Long term we will be OK, ...I guess I just don't see how we get there without a prolonged depression..
- Art

Hey no worries, some Chinese company will buy B&S for a penny on the dollar and make a killing on people that will still think it's an American company and still think MADE IN USA.........they're pretty good at that

I have a Simplicity 16 hp Vangaurd 44" tractor. Bought new in 04. It's been almost flawless. 700+ hours...1 coil and a PTO. Other than that....oil/filters and batteries. Still runs and cuts like new! Nothing wrong with a good Briggs......have another on a 8 yr old Simplicity snow blower...starts on 1 or 2 pulls everytime.

My experience is with the smaller 3.5 to 6 hp motors. When I was using up the 4hp many years ago, the Briggs just had the cheap foam air cleaner that you kept oiled. They would not improve it because they could sell more engines. The customers wanted a better filter. Honda came along with a paper filter so Briggs had to improve. The retro fit kit for a Briggs made it last twice as long. I was a good American consumer and resisted a foreign made engine as long as I could. The last Briggs motors I bought were on the Troy built string trimmers. I went through 4 of those crappy things in a few short years. I can fix anything but gave up trying to keep them running.

After all the issues I had with my last riding mowers engine with a Intek briggs I would not buy another.

I have been happy with my last two briggs motors. Both walk behinds with the same engine, the first one ran well even though I hit something with it and had to straighten the crankshaft back out(can't believe that worked). The second I have on a Husqvarna walk behind that I bought for the AWD because my yard is kind of rough and steep in places. However the one on my old riding mower just blew up one day for no reason I could find. I was mowing along and it started to bog down like the grass was getting thick then just locked up. It was full of oil and everything, that is when I learned I could mow my yard faster with a walk behind lol.

A shame.
Sad.

That's been the labor model at a lot of places for a lot of years. It works well enough to preserve the golden parachute funding when the place eventually goes down the toilet. Some of it is supply and demand based. My last retirement gig would hire in batches of 15-20 for 90 day trials with the hope of keeping one or two. Sometimes that was hard to achieve.

As for B&S motors, can't tell ya what they're like over the last couple decades because I have (2) 8 hp verical shafts that are 20+ years old and still running strong. Tend to suck a little oil but they have since new, still start on first of second pull and the only thing I've had to replace is oil, filter and magneto. My other briggs is an 8 hp horizontal that is at least 30 yrs old and aside from needing starter fluid to start, is also still going strong.

They don't make em like they used to because they aren't still around to make anything.

First engine I ever rebuilt was a B&S small engine back in shop class. Still using them today and the only issues I ever had was related to ethanol gumming up the carb.

Honda mowers use plastic cams. If you don't keep up on the oil changes the cams break. I've had really good luck with Briggs & Stratton

My trusty 21 inch push mower has a Briggs engine and I work it like a bush hog. As stated, cheap gas causes more issues than anything else. Briggs was forced to redesign their engines to meet emissions and that's when quality started to go down. They lost Toro and a couple of other contracts. Instead of trying to fix the issues and regain contract sales, they just kept cranking out engines with no buyers. The warehouses around here for 100 miles are full of Briggs engines nobody wants. Briggs and Stratton is one of the largest employers in our town. This is going to be devastating to our rural town.

And therein really lies the problem, EVERYTHING above mentioned is PERFECTLY legal, and IMO, morally reprehensible.

The concept of doing the right thing, and staying between the "guardrails", is no longer the MO, from the top down.

Nothing can change until you change the top.

Spot on!

Someone could setup a gofundme account to buy B&S and fix them.

Then had to file. Because of todd... millions of dollors owed in interest. Yet he gave himself over a mill. Bonus
They throw money away like nothen. And some how he still gets to keep his job. He is the reason Briggs is in the hole it's in
They would buy up company's that were going in the hole that owed Briggs money. And the company s would still be going in debt...
They just built a 750k square foot warehouse (that's 16 acres under a roof) then bought 140 acres next to it
The plant in m urry ky. Is no longer.......
No one buys a push mower. Most either have a larger mower. Or...have the yard mowed for them
Battery power mowers are what is coming..

I've heard this story too many times - THIS is just one reason why America is circling the drain - pencil-pushing propeller heads with golden parachutes, who never did a real day's work in their lives, are running Corporations. Nothing matters except the stock price and the next quarterly stock dividend. If we could fix this America might stand a chance; otherwise, forget it. I'm sure the Board of Directors won't lose a nickel over this either. They all ought to be made to give back any bonuses they've earned for the last 5 years.

spot on ! ^^^^
but don't worry.......there will be a mcjob created for the workers.........or maybe not.

^ this. Of all of the power equipment that I have, the only item with a Briggs engine is my gas-powered edger, and it is by far the worst piece of equipment I have, and has been so from the day I bought it.

My family always used and had good luck with briggs and they lasted forever but as early as 20 years ago I took one apart to find a plastic cam in it and they were junk. I still have ones older that are fine but as had been said the Honda engine is so much better.

I'd read a month or so ago, maybe, where B&S was looking to divest a ton of their stuff, keeping the Vanguard-related stuff, B&S residential engines, stand-by power systems, and the Vanguard battery stuff. That meant selling things like the Ferris line. When they closed the local plant in Murray, I figured things were getting bad.

LINK -> B&S pays $5 million to board of directors and key employees


"Briggs & Stratton Corp. has chosen not to make a $6.7 million interest payment, but the company’s board of directors has voted to give executives and other key employees more than $5 million in cash retention awards, according to a filing with regulators."

A legend from my childhood and same for many of you I'm sure. Walked behind a B and S for years and years. The last one was a 5hp walk behind commercial mower. Bullet proof.

Excuses to screw the Shareholders, that's a page right out of Blunder Motors' playbook, in addition to cutting off all the Pensioners.

I'd really like my 11.9 Billion back but, too bad so sad. For whatever reason people still buy their junk (although they have lost significant sales to Fiat/Chrysler).

Briggs always was junk. I have fond memories as a kid getting zapped using their ground lever on the spark plug to shut one of them POS's off................only had to pull it 20 times to get it started in the first place. Honda or their Chinese knock-offs are 10 times better.

I have good luck with the Kawasaki mower engines.

I'm in the process of replacing my 14 hp Kawasaki with a Briggs and Stratton 19 hp in my John Deere lawn tractor. The Kawasaki is a 1994 model and has been ok. They are known to loosen the crankcase bolts and I think that is what happened to mine. Oil leached out of the block and it seized when hot.

I would be happy if it lasted since 1994. My B&S lasted about 6 years.

My last mower was a dual blade Toro with a B&S engine. The engine blew a head gasket after two seasons of mowing. Got that replaced under warranty and then it just wore itself out after the next couple of seasons. So only got 4 seasons out of it before it lost power and started using a lot of oil. Poor quality in my book. We do have an old rototiller with a B&S engine. That tiller is probably 40 years old and it always fires right up. So B&S used to build good stuff but I think they lost the recipe a few years back. I don't have any inside scoop, I just assume they went down the lowest cost vendor road and ended up with a lot of poor quality parts going into their engines.

I've had good luck with B&S motors. The last one on my old Sears garden tractor lasted 14 years, the tractor died before the B&S motor did. The B&S on my snow blower is at least 7 years old and other then the belt pulley, the motor works fine. My current zero turn has a B&S motor, its two years and counting, I don't expect any trouble from it either. I expect that many failed B&S motors were due to poor maintenance. Gene

The only reason m urry plant was closed was there was not enuff buissness to run it and the poplar bluff plant
Murray could not run the motors that the p.b. plant built. But the p.b plant can and now does run both....so. m urry got the ax
...on a bad week the p.b. plant will make 800k profit. Good week. Will make 1.2 mill... it's the fact some of the others are a losing venture

My wife cuts the grass. She has me get the Equip. She wanted.
Her last was a Snapper I took it to the other home for me to use there and got her a new Snapper.
It was 900 bucks for it list so was 750 out the door shipped for the commercial mower with Commercial B&S with oil filter
The same mower with Honda was 200 more.
She wanted the B&S so that was what she got.
The old Snapper was 2005 as it was bought after Katrina it is still going at the home I cut.
So hoping that the New Snapper with better B&S will do the same one pull start and plenty of power with a good mower. I hope I do not regret saving the $ not getting the Honda on it.
I know they are not made like they used to but the old 1993 8HP B&S on my 4000KW Generator chugs along all day and night and had done so before as long as 7 days straight did stop it once to swap oil. it has the cast iron sleeve motor. if i replace it i will get a Honda Powered Generator

I remember your post about getting your wife a new Snapper. I also recall lots of unsolicited advice about proper lubrication and break-in, as well as long-term maintenance.

So PINKSTER.... which oil did you use in that gen ?

I jsta picked up a used Yamaha and need to prep it for the SEASON for the condo.

Straight 30 wright ?

Yes, 30Wt Non-Detergent I get cases at NAPA as I use it in the small engines and compressor. It was on sale back when I got it Down to just 6 quarts out of 2 cases.
I did get a good deal on the Yellow B&S Oil Filters at Amazon. The neighbors think I am nuts as I have oil, oil filters and spark plugs for the small engines.
They thought ya just added gas still they stopped and ya get a new one.