Monday, January 25, 2010
Wenzel said he is proud of the way the some 300 Munnsville employees have responded to the challenges of the recession.
“Our workforce here is just great,” he said. “We all have had to tighten our belts a little bit and be a little sharper, but I think they have really come together to help out. Our people here are very practical, and they‘ve all rolled up their sleeves to get the job done.”
While industry-wide commercial mower sales are down an average of 33 percent two years in a row, sales of their product was only down 15 percent, Wenzel said. The purchase by Briggs and Stratton certainly has helped them weather the trying economically times, he explained. It gives them better buying power since they can place orders as part of the group, and when Briggs and Stratton closed a factory in Wisconsin, they sent the production of their high-end lawn tractors to Munnsville.
“We’ve been through a lot over the years and we would have survived this, but under Briggs and Stratton we’ve not just survived but been able to thrive,” Wenzel said.
The business started in 1909 as businessman Jesse Ferris and milking machine inventor William Uebler began the Uebler Milking machine Company. Unfortunately, as a third generation of the Ferris family was running the company by the mid-1980s, their small dairy farm customer base was dwindling along with profits.
Dave Ferris saw another company’s lawn mower and decided they could build one even better, so in 1986 they debuted their first Ferris mower at a trade show in New York City -- and the rest is history. In 1987 they introduced the first-ever hydrostatically driven walk-behind mower, using familiar technology from their feeding machines. It revolutionized a market that until then had seen only belt-driven models and earned Ferris the Innovation Award at Expo ‘89.
In 1998 Ferris again made history with their independent suspension system, riding mower technology that would now cushion the rider from bumps and jolts. This earned them the OEMmie Award for Innovative Engineering Solutions. Also that year, Ferris moved from Vernon to their current location at the old Stockbridge Valley Central School on Main Street in Munnsville.
“That was absolutely a milestone in our history,” Wenzel said of the move. “Without that, we were struggling to get to the next level. We looked around at a lot of manufacturing sites around the area but brick and mortar doesn’t make the company. It’s the people, and this was the best location for our people.”
Simplicity Manufacturing bought Ferris in 1999, and within six months of the purchase their sales increased by 40 percent. An additional 50,000 square feet of assembly area was added to the facility in 2003, and Briggs and Stratton Power Products Group bought Simplicity -- along with Ferris and its other subsidiaries -- in 2004. That sale brought another addition of 10,000 square feet to the Munnsville location.
“One of the key things Briggs and Stratton has done is to recognize that we have a unique culture here that serves the business very well,“ Wenzel said. “They have let us keep as much of that as possible and I think that is a credit to their management for letting us do it.”
There’s a lot going on to reach out to new dealers, said Bill Shea, the vice-president of commercial sales.
“It’s not easy out there, but as long as our competition is selling stuff we’re going to sell more,” Shea promised. They are expanding their work with current dealers, as well as looking into areas where their products haven’t seen much of a presence before like Florida and Texas, he said.
Their major selling points are the unique independent suspension, complete product line, best sales support in the industry and the best quality product available, Shea said.
Power equipment built in Munnsville is now available all over the country and beyond, and the Ferris brand is sold locally at White’s Farm Supply’s three locations in Canastota, Waterville, and Lowville, and at Clinton Tractor and Implement Company.
Art White recalled the beginning of his company’s longtime work with the Ferris family, dating back to even before their was a Ferris Industries. One day in the mid-1980s he sat with Jeff Ferris -- then taking orders Uebler Milking Machine Company equipment -- and Scag mower representative Roy “Dusty” Dust at lunch discussing the possibility for them to start building mowers to provide more work in their winter downtime. “Dusty” jumped right on it, White said, and White’s Farm Supply is now their oldest dealer and also was the largest in the state and fifth in the nation of Ferris mowers.
“The inspiration was just a thought, as we were talking after the orders were done and we were finishing our lunch I’d asked Jeff what they were building at the time which was about this time of year,” White said. “Jeff responded that they had laid off their staff as this was their slow time. I stated that they should be building mowers like what Dusty was selling as all the equipment they already have to work with for the steel they would need to build them with.”
White said it has been fun watching the company grow over the years.
“The Ferris line is one of the top manufacturers in the world noted for quality components and innovative design. They pioneered the independent suspension design critical to high speed mowing on lawns with a smooth ride for less operator fatigue as well as less wear and tear on the machine from the smoother ride -- a big plus all the way around. White’s takes pride in the lines they represent. Over the 60-plus years of watching trends and different manufacturers we take great pride ourselves in knowing that we only carry the best built as well as value lines for our customers. Ferris mowers are a perfect example of the effort that we work closely to the companies that we carry,” he said.
White said often they deal with only a voice on a telephone when communicating with their vendors, but with the proximity of the Munnsville location means they are neighbors as well as business associates. Each of the White’s Farm Supply location offers a full line of their products, and the White’s sales people regularly attend training and have used many of the products to have their own first-hand experience.
Besides the commitment to quality seen in the Munnsville-built products, another main selling point is the fact that they are locally made, White said.
“Many will come in to buy the Ferris Mowers just because they are built here,” he said. “We often find when talking that many people know someone that works there, or often it’s a relative. We also find people coming in with someone that does work there to help them with their choices. It is so rewarding knowing what White’s has done with the Ferris company and to know that it is putting people to work and helping to support the manufacturing base of this great area. Central New York has a lot to be proud of and you can see it with this fine quality product being built here. You can see the pride in the faces of the employees when we are at the plant; we can only hope that the next 25 years of growth will be as good as the first.”
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