On the strength of a long-term supply contract from Briggs & Strattn, Leggett & Platt plans to build a new, 140,000-ft² aluminum diecasting plant in Auburn, AL. The new plant will be near an existing Briggs & Stratton operation, and will start up late in 2005. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year.

Leggett & Platt stated it expects its new plant to generate revenues of $45 million annually.

Briggs & Stratton is the world's largest producer of air-cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment.

David S. Haffner, president and chief operating officer of Leggett & Platt, said, "Briggs & Stratton has been a wonderful, long-time customer of Leggett's, and we are thrilled to be expanding our relationship with them.

“This project is an outstanding example of our 'deverticalization' strategy,” Haffner continued, “whereby Leggett assumes component production responsibility for vertically integrated manufacturers, enabling them to concentrate more effort on their core strengths of design and marketing, while simultaneously reducing capital needs."

James E. Brenn, senior vice president and CFO of Briggs & Stratton, said his organization expects to benefit from Leggett's technical expertise while ensuring it maintains a sufficient supply of diecast components for its Auburn operation.