Husqvarna quitting consumer grade mowers

[Gem99ultra]

Husqvarna is getting out of the consumer grade mower business beginning next year. Article in Today's Mower magazine discloses some of Husqvarna's plans. Here's a short piece of the article:

'We will focus our remaining consumer forest and garden operations in North America to areas where we have proven to bring customer value, such as in handheld products, premium garden tractors, zero-turn lawnmowers and particularly robotic lawnmowers.'

The crux of the article says that after next year if you want a consumer grade mower such as a walk-behind you'll get a MTD made product, regardless of what color it is.

One of the main reasons for the change is the loss of Sears switching to only MTD made products. In the past Sears mowers were made by Husqvarna. No more.

More detail is discussed int eh article in TodaysMower.com.

 

[blackdog2086]

Kind of surprising since I see the Husky's for sale at most of the home stores ( HD and Lowes) and they seem to sell well. I don't think Sears is enough of a retailer anymore for them to matter. I doubt that they'll even be around for more than a few years.

 

[widefat]

Interesting. I drove by my dealer recently and saw that they had stopped stocking Husq. and instead stocked Redmax riders. Makes sense now.

 

[shooterdon]

Ok....I will ask...what is a “premium garden tractor”?

I have had my Husky rider, purchased at Lowe’s, for 6 years and it had been a decent machine. Starter is getting problematic. Hopefully parts will still be available for it.

 

[mcfarmall]

The market could use a competitor for MTD that makes heavy duty lawn care stuff that's built well and lasts a long time...something better than MTD but below JD, Qboda, et al. MTD pretty much swallowed up all the better grade lawn stuff and simply built it down to a price point but retained the name i.e. Cub Cadet.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Kind of surprising since I see the Husky's for sale at most of the home stores ( HD and Lowes) and they seem to sell well. I don't think Sears is enough of a retailer anymore for them to matter. I doubt that they'll even be around for more than a few years.

The article states that the downfall of Sears meant $1B (billion!) loss in Husqvarna sales.

Another disparaging note was that MTD has begun, and will expand, the use of their own vertical shaft engines, leaving Briggs & Stratton out. That's a lot of lost American jobs, assuming more Chinese made parts being used.

The availability of Husqvarna parts really concerns me as well. Will I be able to keep my old well built Husqvarna, and my newer adequate but not-as-well built garden tractor, running for years? We'll just have to wait and see how well Husqvarna treats us.

With that news, I'm feeling like a red-headed step child, with little concern for my brand loyalty. So far here are the Husqvarna items that I own:

Rider 155 42" mower
GTH 52" garden tractor
Husqvarna leaf blower
Wheel string trimmer
Model Model 128L string trimmer
Hus. 12" chainsaw
2 - Husq. sewing machines ($10K each)

I think I'll slow down on adding to that list until I see where Husqvarna is going, which is to say my future ZTR may or may not be Husqvarna.

 

[MitchellB]

I've owned our new Husqvarna riding mower for a couple years and it has been back twice now (under extended warranty) for linkage problems (still there as I right this). Our old Lowes/MTD mower lasted almost 10 years before giving me any major problems. And back then, it had to double as my tractor when needed before we got our first real tractor an ancient 8N Ford in the background.

 

[cdaigle430]

Husqvarna is getting out of the consumer grade mower business beginning next year. Article in Today's Mower magazine discloses some of Husqvarna's plans. Here's a short piece of the article:

'We will focus our remaining consumer forest and garden operations in North America to areas where we have proven to bring customer value, such as in handheld products, premium garden tractors, zero-turn lawnmowers and particularly robotic lawnmowers.'

The crux of the article says that after next year if you want a consumer grade mower such as a walk-behind you'll get a MTD made product, regardless of what color it is.

One of the main reasons for the change is the loss of Sears switching to only MTD made products. In the past Sears mowers were made by Husqvarna. No more.

More detail is discussed int eh article in TodaysMower.com.

Got my tractor in 2006 so its 12 years old, and has 404 hours on it-still runs like new. Only replaced a battery and belt and middle deck bearing to date. Had to re weld the throttle linkage once because it broke at the bend. Bought mine at sears and get the replaceables at Lowes. Also have a Craftsmen snowblower made by husqvarna, only had to replace a belt and deflector cable still runs like new-bought at sears in 2008.

If they go that was be sad but there is always someone else to take its place in the market. May switch to cub cadet-I am eyeing their fuel injected stuff now (snowblowers and tractors)

They are blaming Sears for the 1 billion dollar sales loss...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Kind of surprising since I see the Husky's for sale at most of the home stores ( HD and Lowes) and they seem to sell well. I don't think Sears is enough of a retailer anymore for them to matter. I doubt that they'll even be around for more than a few years.

Husky and or Huskee mowers are not Husqvarna.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

So Sears in continuing their self inflicted demise.