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Briggs & Stratton files chapter 11 bankruptcy.

#1

jakewells

jakewells

Hope they don't follow the path that Tecumseh products went down.


#2

Scrubcadet10

Scrubcadet10


Good bit of insight and info here.


#3

B

bertsmobile1

Note that KPS is negiotatng a new pay deal with the unions ie drastic pay cuts for workers , terminating health benefits and having a fiddle with the pension fund .
So once again the workers will be done over like a dinner.
They are going to close several factories, they will be the ones where Briggs owns the land they stand on.
Wanna bet it will be a secret deal and a KPS affiliated property developer will make a motza from the sale
Then it will be cap in hand to the government for one of "Those loans" that never seem to be paid back .
Reducing the capital ( mostly tied up in land & benefits ) will cause the P:E ratio to increase so the screen warriors of Wall St will start buying the stock.
Meanwhile they will announce that "brands will be retained " which is 2 faced speak for generators being fully imported as will every other product that is economical to ship in containers.
Once KPS has gotten its money back plus a heal;ty margin of profit they will exit & the company will implode .
Give it 10 years if you are lucky.
Briggs are yet to bring out a fuel injected engine so there will be no future sales in California where a carburettored engine can not meet pollution emission standards so I would take "growing the business " with a healthy pinch of salt.


#4

ILENGINE

ILENGINE

Actually Bert Briggs does have EFI a 28, 37 and 40 in a vertical shaft and a 37 and 40 in horizontal in their Vanguard engine line.

And I agree with your assessment of the future of Briggs, but I am not sure they have 10 years.


#5

B

bertsmobile1

I stand corrected.
Did not see any EFI in the OZ price lists.
If they do the vertical intergration thing properly and set up as a direct competitor to MT & AYP for making 3rd party brands then they might get volumes back up and stat making profits from selling parts.
But I doubt it as vertical integration is not the macho big balls favourite now days.


#6

D

DK35vince

Actually Bert Briggs does have EFI a 28, 37 and 40 in a vertical shaft and a 37 and 40 in horizontal in their Vanguard engine line.
Yes they do.
I have a 37 HP EFI Briggs Vanguard engine on my Snapper Pro.


#7

Scrubcadet10

Scrubcadet10

Saw this quote from an article on the 13th, but couldn't read the whole thing due to the website wanting me to pay to subscribe to their stories and paper
""Generac Power Systems wants to acquire some Briggs & Stratton Corp. product lines through the Briggs Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, but Generac says it faces unfair hurdles.""


#8

ILENGINE

ILENGINE

I suspect that Generac wants the generators and pressure washer lines. Which is kind of ironic that Briggs stole the technology from Generac during that agreement for Briggs to purchase Generac a few years ago and then didn't follow through.


#9

StarTech

StarTech

And here I thought it was just that Generac sold off manufacturing rights of the small portable generator line to Briggs so they could focus on the larger fixed position generators.

But well could be just technology ripoff as Briggs appears to be very cozy with China as I noticed that recently Briggs Power Portal has both English and Chinese OM and IPLs listed for nearly every engine I look-up.


#10

ILENGINE

ILENGINE

Startech. There was a 5 year purchase agreement between Generac and Briggs that was never completed. After the non sale, Generac has been gobbling up other generator companies. During that purchase agreement is when Briggs entered the portable and standby generator market


#11

Scrubcadet10

Scrubcadet10

Saw a new headline, but won't let me read it.
Steelworkers approve contract with proposed Briggs & Stratton buyer


#12

StarTech

StarTech



#13

tom3

tom3

And:

Wauwatosa-based engines manufacturer Briggs & Stratton Corp.'s board of directors voted on Sunday to terminate the company's group insurance plan for retirees, which provides retiree health and welfare benefits.


#14

Mower King

Mower King

Bankruptcy attorneys write up a legal document so complex that the ordinary person can not read it, much less understand it but, In short, the way BIG company ( B&S), BIG money bankruptcy works is....find a company ( company X) to make a deal with, sell them your holdings for a low price. Then (B&S) buys it back for a slightly higher margin than what is was sold for...so (company X) makes a profit and (B&S) is out of debt now and owns the holdings back.
It's a Legal Scam that has been going on since the first Bankruptcy Attorney past the Barr Exam!


#15

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

Companies are finding whatever way they can to reduce or eliminate health insurace and pensions for retires. If you are working for a company and you expect to retire with benefits dream on. Doesn't matter what a union negotiates or an employer promises. Laws were passed years ago to protect workers pensions but only if that money was held in an account in the workers name. Lawyers and accountants are working diligently to skirt those laws. If a company is holding money promised for pensions you can be sure it won't be there. If you don't fund your own retirement no one will. Those older folks you see working at McDonald's aren't there because they are bored.


#16

Mower King

Mower King

Companies are finding whatever way they can to reduce or eliminate health insurace and pensions for retires. If you are working for a company and you expect to retire with benefits dream on. Doesn't matter what a union negotiates or an employer promises. Laws were passed years ago to protect workers pensions but only if that money was held in an account in the workers name. Lawyers and accountants are working diligently to skirt those laws. If a company is holding money promised for pensions you can be sure it won't be there. If you don't fund your own retirement no one will. Those older folks you see working at McDonald's aren't there because they are bored.
This is so true, I have seen this personally. My wife retired from AT&T about 12 years ago, at that time she got a HEFTY $$$$ retirement and continued health insurance after 30 years of working there. She had friends that just retired but, now the retirement is next to nothing with NO continued health insurance at all....some got layed off with NO retirement or anything but a meager severance pay...and this was a couple years ago, had nothing to do with the Covid pandemic!


#17

B

bertsmobile1

Bankruptcy attorneys write up a legal document so complex that the ordinary person can not read it, much less understand it but, In short, the way BIG company ( B&S), BIG money bankruptcy works is....find a company ( company X) to make a deal with, sell them your holdings for a low price. Then (B&S) buys it back for a slightly higher margin than what is was sold for...so (company X) makes a profit and (B&S) is out of debt now and owns the holdings back.
It's a Legal Scam that has been going on since the first Bankruptcy Attorney past the Barr Exam!

It goes back to the golden rule
Them that has the gold makes the rules.

Down here things are different as none of the old board are allowed to be on the board of the take over company or on the board of the second take over company for a minimum of 5 years after the investigation has finished, which can take decades.
It was called the anti-Pheonixing laws passed in the 80's after an financial company collapsed and the same board had done exactly what King had mentioned 3 times .
We realized that businesses could not be trusted with pension funds post WW I so the government took them all over .
Back in the 80's the government realized they had created a mill stone so we invented compulsory super annuation , soon to be 12 % of your wages that have to be paid into an external fund so CEO's can't raid it .
Funny enough the Unions all created industry funds and as one would expect, over paid themselves for managing them . However over time these have all outperformed the funds run by banks & insurance companies .


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