COVID Claims Another Business Casualty

Briggs & Stratton Corp., billed as the world's largest manufacturer of small gas engines, has filed for bankruptcy protection, per the AP. "The challenges we have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic have made reorganization the difficult but necessary and appropriate path forward to secure our business," Chief Executive Todd Teske said in a statement. The company was founded in Milwaukee in 1908 by Stephen Foster Briggs and Harold M. Stratton. Its engines are used in lawnmowers, pressure washers, electrical generators, and other products.

As part of the Chapter 11 filing, the company said Monday it has secured secured debtor-in-possession financing of $677.5 million from KPS Capital Partners LP, the private equity firm purchasing its assets, and its existing lenders to allow it to continue operating ahead of the closing of the deal. It does not include any of Briggs & Stratton’s international subsidiaries. Briggs & Stratton products are designed, manufactured, marketed, and serviced in over 100 countries on six continents, according to the company.

(More bankruptcy protection stories.)