It's Offical. Briggs files Chapter 11.

Scrubcadet10

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Sep 24, 2017
Threads
248
Messages
6,431
So i assume, if Briggs doesn't get their act together quickly, Bye Bye B&S?
 

ILENGINE

Lawn Pro
Joined
May 6, 2010
Threads
39
Messages
9,865
Briggs problems started in 2017 with the consolidation of all the distribution into one company, and then having parts availability issues to their dealers with extended backorders that lasted 12-18 months but they claimed was due to an upgrade in computer systems that needed ironed out and they claimed that only took 6 months. Basically their official statement didn't match what the dealers were seeing on the ground. And the brand name licensing to other companies that were not exactly top tier. Nothing like purchasing a Briggs product but the only thing Briggs about it was the engine. The rest of the Briggs product was serviced and warrantied through a third party manufacturer.
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Threads
64
Messages
24,647
Briggs problem is they are a component supplier in a very price sensitive market so they are a price taker not a price setter.
The second problem is they are an assembler of engines from largely bought in parts so every part in the engine has a profit margin for the makers & transport added to the price .
This has happened because of successive generations of management who understand money but have no understanding of small engines or running a factory.
Because accountants need some measure of their "success" they invented a thing called a PE ration ( profit to capital ) and to make that higher you will always have to buy in rather than make it yourself.
This goes back way further than 2017 it goes back to the 50's when the first batch of university graduates got offices and became bad managers in place of what they should have been, good advisers.
And it is not unique to Briggs & Stratton where the top 5 levels of management are principally bonus farmers and not company managers , which is obvious by the granting of retention bonuses .
Then there is the idiot idea of "core business" so any part of the business that can be sold off is, which again raises the PE ratio.
The there is the religious zeal for not paying any tax so accountant will happily spend $ 100,000,000 renting land that they could have bought for $ 2,000,000 in order to avoid $ 10,000 in land tax.
Finally there is Chapter 11 itself , a piece of legislation that would appear to have been written to help large companies survive intact through very tough times but now has just become a tool in accountants tool chest to avoid paying tax & repaying debt.

IMHO, the only thing Briggs had going for them was the ability to get parts for engines that are 30+ years old.
Back when the $ A & the $ USA were in parity I bought 5 pallets of Briggs engines ~ 60 engines .
Right now there are 14 of them I can not sell because I have needed to pirate them for parts that Briggs have not been able to supply.
I waited 18 months for stators , 12 months for cam shafts , 8 months for rockers and am still waiting for 3 plastic cooling fans .
So once these engines are gone they will be the last Briggs engine I will ever fit .
I can get Kawasaki engines for a small amount more than the Briggs and take a hair cut on the fitting fees to make the price the same to the customer.
Or fit Loncins that come with a 2 year no question replacement warranty , cost 1/3 of a Briggs engine wholesale , at a really health profit .

As for Covid being a problem, horse feathers.
The Covid lock downs here have been a massive boost and my wholesalers have all put on extra staff & working overtime to try & keep up.
The peopl who are hurting are the contractors because so many people have bought a mower & are cutting their own lawns.

My guess is the new owners will announce the closure of all USA plants in order to allow President Trump to "rescue " them with a big fat chunk of taxpayers money most of which will end up in the pockets of the directors.
 

seattlepioneer

Active Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2020
Threads
10
Messages
93
George Friedman is promoting the idea that the age of "the expert" has gone aground on the kind of abuse described by bertsmobile1. Donald Trump is the political expression of the reaction to the rule of those kinds of abusive "experts," and no doubt some actual experts get ground up sometimes in the process.

But consider what "journalism" has morphed into, with the New York Times adopting revolution against every American value in their "1519" project, along with "cancel culture" which proposes to let the revolutionaries run riot in every institution, public and private.
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Threads
64
Messages
24,647
I do try not to make political comments because, particularly in the USA politics is on par with religion as the recipient of blind faith from one eyed loyal deciples .

If Briggs tried this down here the top management would all be at home right now, without pay, assets frozen pending possible criminal charges .
The board would all be on notice to prove why their rights to be directors should not be revoked, which means they have to resign all paid directorships till the case is heard in court.
Deloites or PWC would now be running the company on Government contract and as the government is their biggest client they usually do a good job at trading out or liquidating the business .
For me the worry is the IP vanishing as it would take years to download all of the IPL's.
The second worry is new management deciding to no longer support any engine better than X years old
The final worry is the exclusive distribution contract with Oregon and weather Briggs going down will take Oregon with them .
If I was an American the other worry is the fate of all of Briggs USA based suppliers as not only will it affect the supply of Briggs parts, it might also disrupt the supply of parts to hundreds of other companies.

And make no mistake, the benefits of any rescue package will stop at the level of regional managers.
There was a public lecture I went to several yeas ago by a forensic accountant who had looked into the rescue packages introduced post the GFC
Over 90% of the taxpayers money ended up on Wall Street.
Down here we did not do as much direct intervention but again better than 60% of the money our government handed out found it's way to the ASX
 

StarTech

Lawn Royalty
Top Poster Of Month
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Threads
75
Messages
10,109
It comes down to poor management. If they had to operate on a shoe string budget like I do they would be a lot better at managing things.

I have lost nearly half my annual income too this year but is now beginning to come back as things still need repairing. Actually being slow gave me time to research things more, time to design new tools for the shop, plus getting the shop reorganized. Either way I had to take large pay cut to keep my company profitable. There no government bailout for us mom and pop businesses. Heck I haven't even seen that $1200 check the government promised and probably won't as they are just lying to us. But I bet they are going to want me to pay taxes on it at the end on the year.

And yes we can lose a lot of support just we did with Tecumseh and other multiple small companies that folded up on us over the years.

The way things are interwoven today so yes it has the potential to do a lot of damage to our whole supply chain. This Corona virus has really caused some major supply delays already. It even just shut down the machine shop I depend on for custom work. Just got a shaft knurled just as they were shutting down. At least I got both of my custom clutch holding tools made before the shut down.
 

ILENGINE

Lawn Pro
Joined
May 6, 2010
Threads
39
Messages
9,865
I think it is strange how some lawn mower shops have seen sales and service drop as much as 50 % and other are seeing increases up to 30 % over last year. I am up about 10 % over last year, but the equipment I am seeing in the shop is different. Older riders pulled out of the back of barns, more ATV and UTV repairs this year compared to last year.
 

StarTech

Lawn Royalty
Top Poster Of Month
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Threads
75
Messages
10,109
I think it is all the attitude of the customers. Some are just replacing equipment with new which hurts the independent shops that relies solely of repairs. Market dumping of new equipment isn't helping either.

Here the ATV and UTV repairs have been nearly none existence with only two coming so far this year. I only seen handful old retired mowers to come in but they were needing more repairs than they could replace with new.

It doesn't help things when parts take 60 days to arrive either. A Yamaha 90cc ATV here is awaiting a master cylinder that is not even due to until mid August so I am sitting the previous repairs as I can't bill out the repairs until they are completed.
 
Top