The Kohler Factory: How Corporate Greed Erased Wisconsin's Greatest Engine Name After 100 Year

The Kohler Factory: How Corporate Greed Erased Wisconsin's Greatest Engine Name After 100 Year. Pull the engine cover off any serious lawn tractor, zero-turn mower, or commercial generator built between 1950 and 2024 and there is a reasonable chance you are looking at a Kohler engine. The red valve cover. The cast iron block. The name stamped on the side of a machine that was going to run reliably whether anyone paid attention to it or not. John Michael Kohler founded his Wisconsin company in 1873. In 1920, his engineers built the world’s first engine-powered electric generator. By 1963, Kohler was supplying engines for nearly half of every lawn and garden tractor built in the United States. One hundred years of small engine manufacturing — powering farms, factories, and the lawns of postwar America. Then in November 2023, the Kohler family decided the engine division no longer fit their future. They sold a majority stake to Platinum Equity — a California private equity firm — and in late 2024 the new owners erased the Kohler engine name entirely, rebranding the whole operation Rehlko. 🔔 Subscribe for deep-dive stories on American manufacturing, the great names that built it, and the decisions that determined what those names were ultimately worth. 👍 If this story moved you, hit like — it helps more people find stories like this one. 💬 Drop your Kohler story in the comments. Do you run a machine with a K-series, Magnum, or Command PRO engine that has outlasted every prediction for how long a small engine should reasonably last? Are you a commercial landscaper who has run Kohler-powered equipment through full commercial seasons? Did you work at the Mosel or Hattiesburg facility? What do you think about the Rehlko rebrand — does the name mean anything to you? . . . . . #Kohlerengine #smallengine #Rehlko #WisconsinManufacturing #americanmanufacturing