Briggs & Stratton Corp. announced a plan to close its Jefferson and Watertown, Wis. manufacturing facilities in fiscal 2010. The power products segment facilities currently manufacture all portable generator, home standby generator and pressure washer products marketed and sold by the company. Briggs officials said the job reductions will occur by the end of the year and are partly the result of poor market conditions and a need to consolidate production at its factories.

About 100 salaried employees in Jefferson will be offered jobs at other Briggs locations, including Wauwatosa. Production at the Jefferson plant will be moved to other Briggs factories, including plants in Alabama and Georgia. The Jefferson facility will be sold, said Laura Timm, a company spokeswoman.

Outside the U.S., Briggs has benefited from low-cost manufacturing plants it opened in the Czech Republic and China. The Czech plants serve Briggs’ European market, including fast-growing Eastern European countries. According to some reports, Briggs has resisted moving all its manufacturing plants overseas because the U.S. plants can reportedly build an engine with 30 minutes of labor, making them very efficient. Having plants in the U.S. also gives the company a competitive advantage in being able to respond to U.S. hurricanes, snowstorms and other power-related emergencies.

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