Employees at the Fisher Barton plant in Fountain Inn make 40,000 lawnmower blades a day. The blades go into lawnmowers sold around the world under major brand names, or they’re shipped to distributors of replacement parts.
Representatives of one of the lawnmower brands, John Deere, traveled to the plant Monday to recognize the 125 employees with a special honor – direct material Supplier of the Year for John Deere’s Agriculture & Turf Division.
It was enough to send Phil Jaggers, president of the Fountain Inn operation, dancing down an aisle, holding the award high for employees to see. The special ceremony took place in a tent just outside the factory walls.
“We have good workers all over the globe with Fisher Barton, but I’m a little bit partial to South Carolina,” Jaggers said, standing beside a sheet cake with John Deere’s green-and-yellow logo painted on the icing.
Deere & Co., the Illinois-based company that makes John Deere equipment, picked Wisconsin-based Fisher Barton Group out of more than 2,500 suppliers to receive the award, said Kim Narveson, supply base manager at Deere’s Southeast headquarters in Cary, North Carolina. A big reason, she said, was Fisher Barton’s work packing 190,000 service blade kits with no interruption in service, a move that saved John Deere about 8,000 “truck lifts.”
From GreenvilleOnline.com: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/money/business/2015/03/30/john-deere-tips-hat-local-plant/70686740/