MUNNSVILLE, N.Y. — The Ferris Commercial Products Plant in Munnsville, N.Y., is operating at full capacity and company officials are investigating different avenues of expansion, according to a story in the Oneida Daily Dispatch.
“Our plans are to continue to grow. Currently, we’re looking at any and all operations to increase capacity in the Central New York area,” says Philip Wenzel, vice president of commercial products. “Everyone in the area has worked with us and helped us grow. We’ve earned the right to continue and keep growing.”
“We plan to have increased production ability in place starting in 2018,” he says. “We’d be hard-pressed to meet customer demands if there is not some sort of change. We need to be able to expand to meet the growing need for products.”
Power equipment built in Munnsville is now available all over the country and the Ferris brand is sold locally at White’s Farm Supply’s 3 locations in Canastota, Waterville, and Lowville, N.Y., and at Clinton Tractor & Implement Co. Clinton, N.Y. The brand has traversed the globe with markets in Europe and Australia.
Here’s a timeline of the brand:
1986: The company debuts its first Ferris mower at a trade show in New York City.
1987: Ferris introduces the first-ever hydrostatically driven walk-behind mower, using familiar technology from its feeding machines. It revolutionized a market that until then had seen only belt-driven mowers and earned Ferris the Innovation Award at Expo ‘89.
1998: Ferris introduces its independent suspension system. This earned the company the OEMmie Award for Innovative Engineering Solutions. Also that year, Ferris and its 78 employees at the time, moved from Vernon, N.Y., to its current location at the old Stockbridge Valley Central School.
1999: Simplicity Mfg. buys buys Ferris. Within six months, the company's sales increase 40%.
2003: An additional 50,000 square-feet of assembly area is added to the facility
2004: Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group buys Simplicity — along with Ferris and its other subsidiaries. That sale brought another addition of 10,000 square-feet to the Munnsville location.
2007: Ferris, under the parent company Briggs & Stratton, moved into the old Oneida Ltd. warehouse on Highbridge Road in Sherrill, N.Y.. The facility became the warehouse and transportation center for Ferris products.
Completed mowers are shipped from the Munnsville factory to the Sherrill warehouse before being sent to dealers.
