More Than 200 to Lose Jobs at Briggs Poplar Bluff Plant

POPLAR BLUFF — Briggs and Stratton Corp. of Milwaukee continues to reduce its manufacturing capacity due to a prolonged decline in the lawn and garden market, resulting in the layoff of 210 permanent employees at its plant in Poplar Bluff.

The layoff will be effective April 12, according to a news release issued Thursday.

"The economic environment and levels of consumer spending on outdoor power equipment continues to be challenging, particularly in Europe. We will adjust production schedules to better align with decreased market demand," said Dave DeBaets, vice president of Briggs and Stratton's North American operations. "Although these decisions are difficult, evaluation of our manufacturing footprint is an ongoing process as we consider productivity and efficiency gains along with the changes in the markets we serve."

Plant manager Mark Melloy said approximately 1,050 workers are currently employed. The layoffs will drop that number to 840. The plant operates three assembly lines on the day shifts and one second shift.

"We will shut down the second shift line on April 12," Melloy said. "We are forecasting to bring this line back in October for the next lawn and garden season."

This is the second layoff Briggs and Stratton has announced at the Poplar Bluff plant in the past six months.

Starting Oct. 14, the firm began laying off 110 full- and part-time employees and 92 seasonal workers.

"At our peak production a year ago, we had 1,500 employees, including 250 seasonal workers," Melloy said.

On Jan. 26, Briggs and Stratton announced the closing of two plants.

"Since 2004, the U.S. lawn and garden market has declined over 33 percent. This significant and prolonged market decline is unlike any other this industry has seen in decades," said Todd Teske, chairman, president and CEO of Briggs and Stratton.

The firm will move existing manufacturing from its Newbern, Tenn., plant, which opened five years ago, to its facility in McDonough, Ga. Operations are expected to wind down by May 15 with approximately 240 regular employees and 450 temporary workers being affected. The Newbern plant manufactures walk-behind lawn mowers and snow throwers for the U.S. domestic market.

In Europe, the plant at Ostrava in the Czech Republic, which opened in 2006, was closed on March 15, affecting approximately 77 regular employees. Production at this facility, which manufactures small engines for the outdoor power equipment industry, was shifted to the plant in Murray, Ky.

"These changes will better align our production capacity to the markets we serve and are a necessary step in executing our strategy to grow the profitability of our business and invest our resources in high margin and margin expanding areas," Teske said.

Briggs and Stratton started production in Poplar Bluff in 1989 with 370 employees. There were plant expansions in 1994 and 2004 and a medical clinic built in 2004.

In 2005, the firm added a third assembly line in a warehouse west of the plant. Approximately 350 jobs were added over the next two years.

The warehouse was leased 10 years before it was purchased from Poplar Bluff Industries, the industrial division of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce. New machining equipment was added to this warehouse in 2007, bringing the total manufacturing capacity to 408,000 square feet in Poplar Bluff.

Machines were moved from the plant in Rolla, Mo., which closed in 2007 after 12 years of operation. The Rolla plant had employed 480 workers.

In 2009, Mid South Investments of Poplar Bluff completed a 125,000-square foot warehouse on property owned by Poplar Bluff Industries. Briggs and Stratton leased the warehouse on the south side of its plant to reduce the cost of renting smaller warehouses in other communities.

Termination of a lease on a small warehouse along Cravens Road west of the Union Pacific railroad becomes effective in April. Poplar Bluff Industries constructed this building in 2000 to attract a new industry to Poplar Bluff. Briggs had leased the warehouse for several years.

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Early Spring Brings OPE Sales Boom

Milwaukee -- March 22 -- An early spring across much of the U.S. has boosted outdoor power equipment sales, in some cases leaving dealerships and manufacturers such as Ariens Co. scrambling to keep up.

It's not a bad problem to have, especially after some recent years when the weather and the economy left the industry in the doldrums.

Some dealerships are already reordering lawn and garden equipment after they sold what they thought would be several months of inventory.

A large Ariens dealership in Louisiana sold more than a month's worth of products in one weekend, said company president Dan Ariens.

In early January, Brillion-based Ariens Co. switched from making snow removal equipment to lawn and garden machines - about a month ahead of schedule.

It will keep making lawn and garden gear well into the fall, Dan Ariens said.

That's partly because inventories are tight, and consumers have returned to more normal spending habits after several years of not making equipment purchases.

"They're buying more than they did last year, regardless of the weather," Ariens said.

Briggs and Stratton Co., the world's largest manufacturer of small gasoline engines, says it remains cautiously optimistic about outdoor power equipment sales this spring.

Thursday, Briggs announced layoffs at its Poplar Bluff, Mo., factory that makes engines for the European market and has too much manufacturing capacity for the current level of business.

The company expects global sales to be up 4% to 5% this year, with strengths in developing nations.

An early spring in the United States, while encouraging, doesn't always boost lawn and garden equipment business in the following months, according to Briggs and Stratton.

The good weather can end quickly, said company spokeswoman Laura Timm.

Sales lost from poor weather in April aren't necessarily made up in May, Ariens added.

Privately held Ariens Co. does not release annual sales figures but is considered one of the market-share leaders in two-stage snow throwers and is a smaller player in the lawn and garden equipment business with larger competitors such as Toro and John Deere.

The company's independent dealerships compete with Home Depot and other retail chains, some of which also sell Ariens products - although they are different models.

Increasingly, online shopping has changed the marketplace for outdoor power equipment.

"We try not to have our product on Amazon.com, but sometimes it will show up there," Ariens said.

In some ways the Internet has made it easier for salespeople because they don't have to spend as much time explaining their products.

"About 90% of consumers who walk into our power-equipment dealers have already got all of the information they wanted, gathered from online," Ariens said.

Power equipment dealerships usually don't compete with large retail chains and online businesses based on price. Instead they emphasize service, parts and repairs.

Speedway Sales and Service, a dealership in New Berlin, has been inundated with service work in recent weeks.

"Hopefully, spring doesn't hit a brick wall like winter did," which slowed snow thrower sales, said Speedway owner Rizwan Ahmad.

The nearly snowless winter in some areas hurt landscape contractors who rely on snow plowing for their winter income. Many of them use some of that money to buy commercial lawn equipment in the spring.

"Given their tight cash position, some may not buy as much equipment early in the season," said Tom Cromwell, president of Kohler Engines, a division of Kohler Co.

Hopefully they can make up lost income through a strong lawn-cutting season.

"April and May are really the critical months for this business, so we would love to see continued warm temperatures and enough rain to keep things green and growing," Cromwell said.

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Fidelitone Selects ARI’s Datastream (tm) Data-As-A-Service (Daas)

MILWAUKEE, March 20, 2012 --  ARI Network Services, Inc., a leading provider of technology-enabled DaaS and SaaS business solutions that help dealers, distributors and manufacturers increase revenue and reduce costs, announced today that Fidelitone Inc., located in Wauconda, Ill., has licensed DataStream(TM) for a national retailer with 1,800 locations nationwide.

Under the multi-year agreement, ARI will provide Fidelitone with electronic parts catalog data for multiple leading outdoor power manufacturers, including Ariens, Briggs and Stratton Corporation, MTD and Toro.

"We selected ARI and DataStream based on ARI's more than 30 years of experience and expertise in converting disparate manufacturer data into a normalized, easy-to-use format," said Josh Johnson, President of Fidelitone. "Working with ARI will allow us to quickly and cost-effectively deploy accurate parts catalogs into our customer's channel to help them support their service efforts."

"We're excited about the opportunity to stream real-time, enhanced parts data to Fidelitone that will allow their business alliances to look up and order parts," said Roy W. Olivier, President and Chief Executive Officer at ARI. "This relationship aligns perfectly with our core strategy of leveraging our comprehensive library of parts data from more than 125 of the leading manufacturers in the outdoor power, powersports and marine industries to help our customers sell more whole goods and PGandA."

About Fidelitone Inc.

Fidelitone Inc. is an industry leader in 3PL and supply chain performance that delivers value-added solutions for business partners and their clients. A privately-held company headquartered near Chicago, Fidelitone Inc. has more than 28 locations and 500 employees worldwide.

An an innovator within the logistics industry since 1929, expertise includes: Supply Chain Management, Inventory Planning, Warehousing, Fulfillment, Last Mile Delivery, Reverse Logistics, and Parts Logistics. To date, more than 2.5 million shipments are managed by Fidelitone Inc. each year for a variety of customers ranging from Fortune 100 companies to start-up organizations.  For more information on Fidelitone, please visit www.fidelitone.com .

About ARI

ARI Network Services ARIS +6.25% is a leading innovator of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solutions that serve several vertical markets with a focus on the outdoor power, powersports, marine, RV, and appliance segments. Solutions include eCommerce-enabled websites, lead generation/lead management services, search engine marketing, and electronic catalogs (parts, garments, and accessories). ARI markets its products and services through multiple sales channels and geographic markets and currently serves approximately 18,000 equipment dealers, 125 manufacturers, and 150 distributors worldwide. ARI has customers in more than 100 countries with the primary market being the Americas served by multiple U.S. offices. The company also maintains sales and service operations in the Netherlands serving the EMEA and APAC markets.  For more information on ARI, please visit our Website at www.arinet.com .

New VP of Finance at Stihl

Virginia Beach -- March 20 -- Stihl Inc. has announced that Bjoern Fischer will assume the duties of vice president of finance on May 1, 2012. In addition to overseeing the financial operations of the company, Fischer’s role will also include oversight of the human resources and information services departments.

Fischer, who started with the company March 1, will be replacing Karl Angler who will move to Stihl headquarters in Germany as the executive board member for finance, comptrolling, information systems and services for the Stihl Group worldwide, effective May 1, 2012.

“While we will miss Karl greatly as he moves to his new role with the Stihl Group worldwide, we are quite pleased to welcome Bjoern Fischer to the Stihl family,” said Fred Whyte, president of Stihl Inc. “His experience leading the financial and operational departments for the U.S. division of a German company with a worldwide reach is exactly what Stihl Incorporated needs as we continue to grow.”

Fischer joins Stihl Inc. after a successful career with Siemens that spanned nearly 20 years. During his tenure with Siemens, Fischer worked in Germany, California, Texas and, most recently, in Pennsylvania where he was the executive vice president and chief financial officer for the Water Technologies business unit.

“The opportunity to work for a company with such an excellent worldwide reputation came at the perfect time, both professionally and personally,” said Fischer, who is married with two daughters, aged 11 and six. “Not only does this position allow me to utilize my experiences working in Germany and in the U.S., along with my interest in the operational side of business, but also gives my family the occasion to settle in one place.”

Fischer, a native of Rustenburg, South Africa, graduated from the University of Cape Town with a bachelor’s degree in commerce.

Bad Boy Mowers to Expand in Batesville, AK

March 1 -- Bad Boy Mowers, a manufacturer of a variety of zero-turn mowers and multi-terrain vehicles (MTV), today announced plans to expand its operations in Batesville, where the company is also headquartered. Bad Boy will invest $7.4 million and add 150 positions, bringing Bad Boy’s total employment in Arkansas to more than 550 people. Through this expansion, Bad Boy will add to its MTV manufacturing capacity.

Bad Boy Mowers are now manufactured, assembled and stored in multiple facilities comprising over 650,000 square feet in Batesville and Melbourne, Arkansas.

“Bad Boy Mowers is a homegrown Arkansas company that continues to grow thanks to an entrepreneurial spirit and a strong, committed workforce,” Governor Mike Beebe said. “Bad Boy and Batesville have brought each other success in recent years, and I’m glad to see this relationship continue to strengthen.”

Bad Boy was established in 1998 in Diaz, Arkansas and began production at its current Batesville location in 2002. The company has experienced several expansions in its short history.

Bad Boy co-owners Phil Pulley and Robert Foster attribute the company’s continued growth and success to the superior quality of the company’s products, and most importantly to the exceptional workforce responsible for designing and producing those products.

“We have a family atmosphere and a team spirit second to none, and a group of hard working, talented, and extremely dedicated employees that have made us what we are, allowing us to continue to grow and expand,” Pulley stated. “We like to say that our products are built Bad Boy tough and Batesville proud,” Foster added.

Bad Boy currently manufactures 33 versions of zero-turn mowers. These include the AOS Diesel Series, the Outlaw and Outlaw Extreme, the MZ Series and ZT Series.

Bad Boy currently manufactures six versions of MTVs. As a result of this expansion, ten new MTVs will be added, bringing total MTV models created by Bad Boy to 16. These include a variety of gasoline, diesel and electric models with two and four seat variations. These are produced specifically for agricultural, industrial, recreational or high-performance purposes.

“On behalf of Independence County, I can’t show enough appreciation to both the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and Governor’s Office for their work in making this expansion happen,” said Independence County Judge Robert Griffin. “In the spirit of partnership, we will work to contribute funding from the county level in order to enhance the project to allow the maximum number of jobs to be created locally.”

Mowers and MTVs produced by Bad Boy are available through dealers throughout the United States as well as Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

www.arktimes.com