GERMANTOWN, Wisc. — Briggs & Stratton’s Germantown distribution center will be closed by April 1.
According to our partners at the Milwaukee Business Journal, executives have decided to exit its business segment of selling portable generators, pressure washers and snow throwers to mass retailers.
Lauren Vagnini told the Milwaukee Business Journal on Friday that the products are made in Asia and the Germantown facility distributes the product categories the Wauwatosa-based company is exiting.
Vagnini said a small number of hourly employees will be impacted, and they will go through a bumping process under their labor union’s contract for hourly positions at other Milwaukee-area facilities, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal.
Some Milwaukee salaried employees who will be impacted are able to take new roles to fill existing salaried job openings in the area.
Briggs & Stratton senior vice president of turf and consumer products, Harold Redman, sent a memo to employees Friday informing them of the decision.
According to a letter attained by TMJ4 News, Briggs & Stratton executives said the business “has not met our profitability targets” despite attempts to achieve “a reasonable financial return,” Redman said. The company is targeting an exit in early summer.
According to the Milwaukee Business Journal, KPS Capital Partners of New York City acquired Briggs & Stratton in September 2020 after the Wauwatosa company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in July 2020.
