Snapper Inc.

Snapper, Inc. was a United States company, formerly based in McDonough, Georgia, that manufactured residential and professional lawn-care and snow-removal equipment. Snapper was known for its high-quality red "rear-engine" riding lawnmowers that are capable of standing on-end for storage or repairs, and for its invention of the first self-propelled rotary lawn mower.

History

The company began in 1894 as Southern Saw Works. Later, in the 1940s, as the McDonough Power Company, it was acquired by William Raymond Smith, who changed the company's direction when the lumber industry declined. Smith recognized a need for lawn mowers and patented a mowing blade.[1] With this, he created the "Snappin' Turtle," named so for the way it snapped the grass and for its turtle figurine on the top front of the first model. While mostly known for their lawnmowers, Snapper also built tillers and snow blowers.

Brought under the umbrella of Fuqua Industries in '67, sales grew from $10 million in 1967 to $260 million in 1987.

Producing an assortment of lawn-care tools, Snapper, Inc. had facilities in McDonough, Georgia(original), Beatrice, Ne., and Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1991, Snapper announced the closing of the Fort Worth, Tx and Beatrice, Nb. factories. The McDonough, Georgia factory was expanded to absorb the production. The closings were not due to financial problems but Fuqua President Lawrence Klamon said 'most of the production from Fort Worth was going east of (the) Mississippi anyway'.

In 2002, Snapper was acquired by Simplicity Manufacturing,[2] which was subsequently acquired by Briggs & Stratton in 2004.

Since, the name has been added to products such as weed trimmers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, among others.

In 2014 Briggs and Stratton announced the plan to close the McDonough Ga. Factory moving production to Brigg's Wauwatosa Wi. factory. Briggs said it made sense to fold the Georgia plant's Snapper operations into the Wauwatosa factory near the company's headquarters, where engineering, product research and other departments support manufacturing. The Georgia factory was underutilized, and some of its products are to be eliminated.


References

  1. ↑ "William Smith". nytimes.com.
  2. ↑ "Simplicity Acquires Snapper," Snapper, October 23, 2002 Archived May 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.


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