BRIGGS & STRATTON AND JAPAN-BASED FIRM PLAN PB PLANT

POPLAR BLUFF -- An $8 million investment in the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park by Briggs & Stratton and Japan-based Starting Industrial will bring up to 60 manufacturing jobs in October.

"We are taking advantage of the design expertise of Starting Industrial and Briggs & Stratton's manufacturing experience," said Chris Kurz, the president of the new company, Starting USA Corp., a joint venture between the two.

SUSA, as it is called, will make recoil starters form Briggs & Strattons' small-engine plants in Poplar Bluff and Milwaukee, Wis.

"We estimate the first year we'll produce three million recoil starters," said Kurz. "And we're gearing up already for a doubling of capacity."

SUSA will be housed in a new 5,000-square-foot speculation building in the industrial park. An assembly line will be brought in with the necessary equipment to begin operation Oct. 3.

"The majority of our production will go right up the road," said Kurz, referring to the Briggs & Stratton plant across the industrial park. "It's pretty much freight in, freight out. Briggs will be our largest customer."

Masao Harada, president of Starting Industrial, is chairman of SUSA. Masao's father, Kan-ichi Harada, founded the firm in Tokyo in 1950. Starting Industrial has an annual production of 5.5 million recoil starters.

"We started out with a lot of slack in the system," said Kurz. "But we don't anymore. With any increase in the business we're projecting, we'll have to expand."

Kurz said the schedule for opening in less than two months "is pretty aggressive."

The building is being readied for occupancy. Project engineer Keith Huffman of Huffman Construction, the general contractor, said: "Everyone is working together very well. It's been a very intense job."