What Happened to Snapper? The Snappin' Turtle

When Snapper walked away from Wal-Mart in 2002, was the red mower brand already in trouble? Its own annual reports show the turtle-badged mower from McDonough, Georgia, had been losing ground for 15 years. William R. Smith built the first Snapper, then called the Snapping Turtle, in 1951, and for decades only dealers sold it. Sales reached about $288 million in 1987, then fell to about $191 million by 1989. The factory financed its own dealer channel, and each owner short of cash changed where the mowers were sold. By 2005, more than 80 percent of American powered lawn equipment went through mass merchandisers. The McDonough plant closed after 2014, and in 2024 the Snapper name was licensed to a garden machinery maker in China. What this video covers: • 1951: the Snapping Turtle and its cast iron turtle head • 1991: two plant closures and a $50.6 million loss • 1997: a telecom group that drew 90 percent of its revenue from mowers • 2002: the meeting in Bentonville • 2014: the McDonough plant closes If you bought a red Snapper from a dealer, tell us which model sat in your garage. Refusing Wal-Mart did not save Snapper, because the market had already moved. Subscribe for more small-engine history, told from the records.