After closing its McDonough, Ga. manufacturing facility, Briggs & Stratton is looking to hire at least 135 employees at its Wauwatosa, Wis. plant as the McDonough facility’s mostly Snapper products are streamlined and farmed out to other Briggs facilities.
A longtime lawn and garden manufacturing plant, the McDonough factory had been the primary Snapper facility since the company moved there in 1954 several years after manufacturing its first “Snappin’ Turtle” rotary mower. With 50 mower-enhancing patents either in hand or applied for, Snapper began building riding mowers soon after. Snapper was acquired by Simplicity in 2002, and became part of Briggs & Stratton when Briggs bought Simplicity in 2004.
In July 2014, Briggs announced that it would close its plant in McDonough since it was underutilized, and some of its products would be discontinued. As a result, McDonough’s production of riding lawn tractors, pressure washers and snow throwers would move to Wauwatosa in 2015. Briggs officials say the move also made sense to relocate manufacturing to Wauwatosa where it’s closer to company headquarters and engineering, R&D and other manufacturing support functions. The McDonough plant’s commercial zero-turn products are moving to Briggs’ manufacturing facility in Munnsville, NY.
Briggs officials say they expect to add a total of 220 full-time positions and 150 temporary seasonal workers to its facility in Wauwatosa. The additional hiring is expected to happen early next year. The company is hiring assembly workers, machine operators, forklift/material handling staff, set up technicians, welders, maintenance workers and technicians.
