It's Offical. Briggs files Chapter 11.

[StarTech]

Some news on Briggs dated one day ago.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/43...rs-are-being-wiped-out-bankruptcy-liquidation

 

[ILENGINE]

One reason i keep very little inventory on hand. Essentially seasonal maint and carb stuff. Fuel line, starter cord and the like. I don't stock belts and blades, just too many to keep up with.
Like Star my advertising is business cards and word of mouth. Best bang for the buck in this business.

I am basically doing the same thing and reducing inventory. Carry the common filters and such. Also do word of mouth advertising and business cards. In my 22 years of business I have got caught with the McCulloch, Tecumseh, Murray, and now the Briggs bankruptcy.

 

[tom3]

And the Chinese small engine cloners are grinning ear to ear on this bankruptcy.

 

[bertsmobile1]

And the Chinese small engine cloners are grinning ear to ear on this bankruptcy.

They do not care.
Walmart , Lowes , MTD , Toro & the like have their order books filled already.
Remember Briggs & Stratton is a 50% partner in 2 of these factories that make push mower engines.
The person who is grinning ear to ear is Xi Jinping who is seeing another peg in China's 50 year plan to be come the dominant world power without having to fire a single shot falling into place.

And in the mean time to distract the moron masses ( that's us ) and make them feel safe & secure the USA ( & AUST ) is spending millions by sailing warships in waters that China claim as soverign.
Sabre ratteling while the country is going down the drain.

So now there will be thousands more Americans who will loose their pensions or investment wealth thrown into poverty through no fault of their own who will feel that the capatalist system has betrayed them and become willing foot soldiers for a dramatic change .
Add to them the thousands who lost their houses and all their accumulated assets in the GFC only to see the megga rich get bailed out with tax payers money and you will see that the potential army for revolt is getting bigger by the day.
People in comfortable & secure housing with full bellies rarely take to the streets in violent protest.

 

[Its Me]

There problem started way back, I had a mower shop opened in 1980, soon after that they decided to put cheaper base gaskets on the 11HP and it would blow out at the camshaft area, well between Briggs and the local distributor they decided to lie and tell us dealers that they customer run it with out oil (sure did) they said they would not replace the engine, one line I sold was Toro, that rear engine rider with the 30" deck they were tough and did not see them come in again until the next years of Briggs come out, I would sell sometimes 10 a week, well the first one comes in, locked engine pull it apart and burnt rod, call the distributor and ask him to come by and check, well two weeks go by, they I started seeing the gasket hanging out, by the time he came we had 30 mowers all lined up just as neat as we could, brought in one side of the shop showed him the Briggs and he was quick to say that it was not going to be replaced, "Customer dropped the oil and did not add any" then brought him in the large shop area and I said so did 30 other customers and we have five to pick up today, that is when they came out with the 12HP which all parts were the same the only difference was that they added a bolt at the cam area, then next was the hole in the carburetor casting, they bought two homes where we lived dripping gas in a carport with a gas hot water heater, now that one they really tried to get out of, could put the carburetor in water add air pressure nice stream bubbles, they went the cheap route and low end crap, smart kid engineers and the please the board of directors until your out of business.

 

[StarTech]

That probably explains why I have never seen an 11 hp L-head Briggs engine. They all had died.

Apparent Briggs didn't step up and admitted it was their fault unlike Kohler did on the Courage Singles. Kohler made good on these even after the warranty expired as redesign the cylinder block. Big difference in company attitude toward their products and their customers.

MTD is just a bad on some things. One items that I deal with the blade brake is designed wrong and they know it but refuse to redesign it. which is basically just move the shoe up a little.

If you ever fully read a warranty or service contact you will find it can be used to not cover a single thing.

Briggs latest tactic used on me was not warranting the new parts. I would purchase the parts from my Briggs distributor and when the part was bad they wanted me to go to a dealer to have it made up. Of Course all the local dealers here refused to do so as I didn't buy the part from them. The distributor excuse was that they wasn't a service center and Briggs would not warranty the parts they sold for Briggs because of this.

I reckon that what I get for being an independent shop that don't buy a lot of parts that just on the shelves collecting dust and going bad over time. I still got parts for 11 yrs ago that I had to buy to get in with the first distributor. Now that distributor has free shipping on orders of 200.00 or more. I tend to just orders that are a tad over 200.00 (like 200.04) just to see how much they got to write off in shipping charges. The last order of 203.71 they had to write off over 48.00 in shipping charges and that order isn't even fully shipped; still got a Briggs item on back order. On a couple of this year's orders under 200.00 they really stuck it to me but now I am sticking it to them.

 

[PTmowerMech]

@bertsmobile1 , when do you sleep? Australia must have like 36hrs in one day. LoL.

Seriously, what you do and how you do it, to get all that done in one day/night, makes me think you're very good at what you do.
Knowledge and experience cuts repair times way down.
I spend much of my time researching the specific problems, diagnosing and looking for something I just laid down.

At one time, I thought I wouldn't have to stock a lot of parts. One to two day delivery seemed fine. Until I get 4 or 5 pieces of equipment tore down. Then when parts come in, remembering what mower the parts were for.

I had a customer yesterday that wanted to buy blades for a 61" scag. I quoted him $90 for 6 (cash). He said to order them because he was paying the dealer $120 for 6. I told him I needed the $90 up front, he refused. Parts on hand means getting the sale and the job done right then and there.

 

[StarTech]

Bert is probably like me as I am up anytime night. In my case it is the migraine headaches I get. I have been know to be on the net at 2-3 am while I get my headache calmed down.

 

[bertsmobile1]

@bertsmobile1 , when do you sleep? Australia must have like 36hrs in one day. LoL.

Seriously, what you do and how you do it, to get all that done in one day/night, makes me think you're very good at what you do.
Knowledge and experience cuts repair times way down.
I spend much of my time researching the specific problems, diagnosing and looking for something I just laid down.

At one time, I thought I wouldn't have to stock a lot of parts. One to two day delivery seemed fine. Until I get 4 or 5 pieces of equipment tore down. Then when parts come in, remembering what mower the parts were for.

I had a customer yesterday that wanted to buy blades for a 61" scag. I quoted him $90 for 6 (cash). He said to order them because he was paying the dealer $120 for 6. I told him I needed the $90 up front, he refused. Parts on hand means getting the sale and the job done right then and there.

That is why I keep a big inventory but not a lot of each item, usually just 2 sets of each blade that my customers use and a few more for those that my contract customers use.
Chain is always 200' rolls so I can price match, forget the premade loops .
When Jackmax lost the Carlton franchise they had a fire sale & I bought a roll of every size for 1/2 the normal wholesale price so they cost around 10¢ to 25¢ per DL
You forget I do not have a retail presence so If I work till 3 am I can sleep in till 10am .
The business name is Bert's MOBILE mower repairs so people usually ring first & I arrange a mutually beneficial time to do the transport.
Sunday is the big day for gate sales as the mower shops are all closed and most of the locals are city business people living the dream on acerage that they do not have the time to maintain.
Saturdays are not bad either as I get people calling in on their way home after the glass fronts did not have the parts in stock, and I do.
The other problem is low inventory at the warehouses.
Have a tension arm for a timecutter 36" on order for over a year , nill stock in OZ & nil stock in the USA . Briggs stator took 18 months & 12 months for a 31 series cam.
Just got rings for a FX651 that have been on order for 3 months , waiting for a rod for a CV18, again two months old and on it goes.
Ordered 10 belts last week, got 4 , 6 on BO so it is fit a bigger idler ( or two ) and a longer belt .
And like Star, 2 of each pulley size and when there is a minimum no delivery quantity then place the order.
So much easier to repair from stock than order replacements latter and in many cases the delivery cost can double the parts prices.
Also allows me to order from different wholesalers to get best prices ( or better parts ) .
Even better it confuses the tax man as parts orders are never directly corellate to work done that month .
Then there are trade packs, if a part can be ordered in a bulk pack then I do so again a better price.
Boxed $ 15 oil filters for parts sales and bulk $ 6.00 filters for service fitment. Same for fuel filters $ 4.50 individual pack & 75¢ in a 50 pack .
So buy in the 50 pack , charge $ 5 for one fitted & offer the customer a prepacked one with a $ 6.50 price tag on it for a spare, so they think they got a bargan.
Same with air filters , most of the common ones come in trade packs of between 10 & 50 usually at about 1/2 the single item price.

 

[PTmowerMech]

That is why I keep a big inventory but not a lot of each item, usually just 2 sets of each blade that my customers use and a few more for those that my contract customers use.
Chain is always 200' rolls so I can price match, forget the premade loops .
When Jackmax lost the Carlton franchise they had a fire sale & I bought a roll of every size for 1/2 the normal wholesale price so they cost around 10¢ to 25¢ per DL
You forget I do not have a retail presence so If I work till 3 am I can sleep in till 10am .
The business name is Bert's MOBILE mower repairs so people usually ring first & I arrange a mutually beneficial time to do the transport.
Sunday is the big day for gate sales as the mower shops are all closed and most of the locals are city business people living the dream on acerage that they do not have the time to maintain.
Saturdays are not bad either as I get people calling in on their way home after the glass fronts did not have the parts in stock, and I do.
The other problem is low inventory at the warehouses.
Have a tension arm for a timecutter 36" on order for over a year , nill stock in OZ & nil stock in the USA . Briggs stator took 18 months & 12 months for a 31 series cam.
Just got rings for a FX651 that have been on order for 3 months , waiting for a rod for a CV18, again two months old and on it goes.
Ordered 10 belts last week, got 4 , 6 on BO so it is fit a bigger idler ( or two ) and a longer belt .
And like Star, 2 of each pulley size and when there is a minimum no delivery quantity then place the order.
So much easier to repair from stock than order replacements latter and in many cases the delivery cost can double the parts prices.
Also allows me to order from different wholesalers to get best prices ( or better parts ) .
Even better it confuses the tax man as parts orders are never directly corellate to work done that month .
Then there are trade packs, if a part can be ordered in a bulk pack then I do so again a better price.
Boxed $ 15 oil filters for parts sales and bulk $ 6.00 filters for service fitment. Same for fuel filters $ 4.50 individual pack & 75¢ in a 50 pack .
So buy in the 50 pack , charge $ 5 for one fitted & offer the customer a prepacked one with a $ 6.50 price tag on it for a spare, so they think they got a bargan.
Same with air filters , most of the common ones come in trade packs of between 10 & 50 usually at about 1/2 the single item price.

I wished I had the money to come check out you and your operation. Sounds like you have it "going on, " as we say up here.

BTW, I've noticed that many of Stens "packs" aren't all that much cheaper than individuals. Trying to increase my on hand parts is getting expensive. Finding that I need to slow down a little, so I can buy the parts I have to have for jobs in the shop.
I really need to get my DBA and tax exemption permit. But At the same time, trying to keep from getting 2 weeks behind on the equipment I have in the shop.
I picked up a mower this morning. Customer says he's had it at the other shop just down the road from him, for 2 months. He got it from them yesterday, I picked it up this morning and it's finished now. Luckily, I had the few parts it needed and now it's loaded on the trailer for this afternoons delivery. And apparently, I'm too cheap on my prices. I charged $120 for the P&D, blade replacement, straightened and secured a bolt that holds the tension spring and tightened up the exhaust manifold. Customer told me when I called them to let them know it was ready and the cost of repairs, that the shop it was at said it was going to be over $200.