posted 01-27-2012 08:30 AM ET (US)        

I figured there might be some interest in this. I wouldn't mind having some of this equipment in my shop. Maybe just a bench vise...

posted 01-28-2012 10:44 AM ET (US)            

The closure of the Stillwater, OK plant is the result of a well publicized and much discussed battle that Mercury Marine started. This battle pitted Wisconsin against Oklahoma in a typical corporate extortion scheme wherein tax breaks and incentive packages from public coffers were requested to maintain Mercury's presence in the winning state.

posted 01-28-2012 11:20 PM ET (US)            

OMC did not play off two cities, two plants, and two sets of employees against each other, demanding wage concessions, tax relief, and special investments from the state in order to maintain their operation. OMC just went bankrupt.

Bombardier picked up the outboard engine manufacturing portion of OMC, invested millions in capital, and moved the outboard assembly operation to a brand new factory they constructed at Sturtevant, Wisconsin. BRP did close down some old OMC facilities in the South in order to consolidate manufacturing, but they did not try to play two plants or two sets of workers against one another to extract wage concessions. BRP hired back a lot of former OMC workers who were out of a job.

Recently BRP moved even more of its Evinrude operation to Sturtevant, but in that process they never tried to leverage one state against another, one city against another, one set of workers against another for the purpose of gaining concessions in wages from the workers or special benefits from the state.

If you read that white paper about Brunswick (linked above) you will see that Brunswick has laid off many thousands of its workers, shut down many of its plants, moved boat building operations from one region of the country to another, and, in general, made a very large reduction in its workforce.

As for taxes, there is further irony. Since Brunswick has accumulated losses of hundred of millions of dollars in their operation over the past five years, even when they do return to a profit they will be unlikely to pay any income tax on it for some time, as they will shelter it with their losses carried forward on their corporate accounting.

I don't have any knowledge about the feelings of Bain Capital about their investment in BRP, and I doubt that you do, either. You probably just make up these things and throw them out there as part of your campaign of fear, uncertainty and doubt against BRP. BRP is a privately held company, and, like most privately held companies, they keep a lot of their financial information private.

posted 01-29-2012 08:44 AM ET (US)            

Bain Capital takes part in ownership and reaps rewards of it's management advice to turn companies around. Staples is an another example. Evinrude might no longer even exist if not for their management.

Brunswick corporate HQ is based out of Illinois, while Mercury has always been based out of Fond Du Lac. Historically, small engine manufacturing firms such as Tecumseh, Briggs&Stratton and Harley Davidson were based on southern Wisconsin.