BRIGGS & STRATTON

BRIGGS & STRATTON is a century-old American company specialising in engines and motorised equipment. It is based in Wauwatosa (near Milwaukee), in the state of Wisconsin, the cradle of the American engineering industry. It was founded in 1908 by Stephen Foster Briggs, a recent university graduate, and Harold M. Stratton, a wealthy grain merchant wishing to invest his fortune in the new technologies of the time. They were inspired by one of Briggs' student projects, a six-cylinder, two-stroke engine. In 1922, they launched the cheapest car in the industry, the famous "Red Bug Car", also known as the "Smith Flyer", at a price of $125 - less than 2,200 in today's dollars! Over time, the company specialised in engines and mechanical components for cars, and manufactured for the army during the Second World War. In the 1950s, BRIGGS & STRATTON refocused on motorised garden tools with the ultra-light aluminium engine, followed by lawnmower engines with Easy-Spin starting. Descendants of the founders continued to run the company until 2001. Since then, BRIGGS & STRATTON has become the world's leading manufacturer of petrol engines, producing 11 million units a year.