Hey yall. I have been doing tons of research on the history of Dynamark mowers lately as I am working on a documentary series all about Murray and Dynamark plays an important role in Murray's history. I thought I would share some of my findings with yall. This is still a kinda brief version, when I get around to my documentary style video I will probably also do a very long post on the Murray forum with a lot more info.
Here are the quick bullet points for those who dont want to read the whole thing.
AMF started building mowers in the mid/late 60's
1982 AMF spun off/sold the mower division into Western International Incorporated
Mid 1988 Western International became Noma Outdoor Products INC.
1994 Tomkins (Owners of Murray) purchased Noma and joined them with Murray
So, AMF Founded 1900 started building mowers in mid/late '60s. Massey Ferguson approached AMF to build mowers in 1967 and ended their partnership in 1976. AMF started declining as a company and spun off/sold (I can't find specific facts on this) their lawn and garden division in 1982 to Western International Incorporated. Meanwhile in Canada, Noma Industries Limited was a large company with many divisions one of which was Outdoor Products MFG started in or before 1980 (cant find much about them before 1980) they produced snow blowers, tillers, and walk behind mowers. December 31st 1986 Noma purchased Western International and combined them with Outdoor Products MFG (known at this point as Canadiana Outdoor Products) and spent 1987 building a new plant in Jackson Tn. Sometime in 1988 operations moved from Western International in Des Moines, Iowa to Jackson, Tennessee where it was now a new company known as Noma Outdoor Products. Tomkins PLC who purchased Murray Ohio MFG Co. in 1986, ended up purchasing Noma Outdoor Products in 1994 and joining the two companies together. Murray was sold to Summersong Investments in 2000 and after a couple bad recalls in 2003 and 2004 as well as losing their financial backer in early 2004, in November of that same year Murray filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Murray owed Briggs & Stratton a rather large sum of over $30 million for engines they purchased last spring and with no way to pay them back Briggs acquired most all of Murray's assets in February 2005, the Lawrenceburg plant closed that August.
This research has taken me a very long time and lots of hours combing through old business articles, annual reports, talking with previous employees, etc. Trying to find the history on Noma's outdoor products and Western International's history there in the 80's was quite difficult. You will find a lot of misinformation online about these companies as well. I will make a couple of point clear here, MTD and AYP have never been associated with or built any Dynamark, Noma, or Murray mowers before 2005.
Below are just a couple of photos of a 1988 model tags where you can see the mid year change.
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Here are the quick bullet points for those who dont want to read the whole thing.
AMF started building mowers in the mid/late 60's
1982 AMF spun off/sold the mower division into Western International Incorporated
Mid 1988 Western International became Noma Outdoor Products INC.
1994 Tomkins (Owners of Murray) purchased Noma and joined them with Murray
So, AMF Founded 1900 started building mowers in mid/late '60s. Massey Ferguson approached AMF to build mowers in 1967 and ended their partnership in 1976. AMF started declining as a company and spun off/sold (I can't find specific facts on this) their lawn and garden division in 1982 to Western International Incorporated. Meanwhile in Canada, Noma Industries Limited was a large company with many divisions one of which was Outdoor Products MFG started in or before 1980 (cant find much about them before 1980) they produced snow blowers, tillers, and walk behind mowers. December 31st 1986 Noma purchased Western International and combined them with Outdoor Products MFG (known at this point as Canadiana Outdoor Products) and spent 1987 building a new plant in Jackson Tn. Sometime in 1988 operations moved from Western International in Des Moines, Iowa to Jackson, Tennessee where it was now a new company known as Noma Outdoor Products. Tomkins PLC who purchased Murray Ohio MFG Co. in 1986, ended up purchasing Noma Outdoor Products in 1994 and joining the two companies together. Murray was sold to Summersong Investments in 2000 and after a couple bad recalls in 2003 and 2004 as well as losing their financial backer in early 2004, in November of that same year Murray filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Murray owed Briggs & Stratton a rather large sum of over $30 million for engines they purchased last spring and with no way to pay them back Briggs acquired most all of Murray's assets in February 2005, the Lawrenceburg plant closed that August.
This research has taken me a very long time and lots of hours combing through old business articles, annual reports, talking with previous employees, etc. Trying to find the history on Noma's outdoor products and Western International's history there in the 80's was quite difficult. You will find a lot of misinformation online about these companies as well. I will make a couple of point clear here, MTD and AYP have never been associated with or built any Dynamark, Noma, or Murray mowers before 2005.
Below are just a couple of photos of a 1988 model tags where you can see the mid year change.
