yeah that was a venture between bad boy mowers and Kukje machinery of China. Kukje also makes other brands too, TYM, Branson, a few others (I think). Draw your own conclusions.
The folks at Bad Boy are known for being go-getters but sometimes it gets them into trouble. Remember when they got into the side-by-side UTV market? Those were an absolute JOKE at best. I knew the lead designer aka enginerd. Real smart, but copied a lot of designs from other manufacturers of the time, which were terrible designs from the get-go, so they copied defective equipment. Later on they got themselves into a legal pickle and had to split the whole SxS line off to another brand (Intimidator) which is also a flop. I wanna say Mahindra had their hands in that deal but I could be wrong.
In about 2011 I went into the factory at Batesville and met a lot of the guys who work there, mostly upper management-but later on got to meet in person with the CEO and CFO in different circumstances of which I'll not go into at this time. My wife grew up with the marketing director and several others, so we kinda all know each other. They're all good people. The "ideas" come from higher ups. Anyway while I was there I toyed with the idea of working there, I liked the folks, I liked the business model, the atmosphere, and most of all the people and the area. Fits my personality. So I got to asking people I knew about employment. A couple years went by, I guess they blew it off, so I reminded one of the guys in the office that I was still interested. He said come on up I wanna talk to you in person, so I made the trip (GF at the time was living a couple miles from the factory so I made a weekend out of it). Interview went awesome. He and I hit it off talking about customer interactions and how to deal with situations, we both understood each other quite well. The deal breaker? I was on board, would have had to move (I don't own much so that part was easy), BUT he said I'd have to start off sweeping floors, you basically start at the bottom and work your way up. I'm not saying I'm too good for that because I ain't, but I'm not moving 100 miles away to work for $10 and hour when I'm already making $20. We could not come to any kind of compromise, and the financial situation was such that I could NOT move for that salary, so I stayed where I was at. Nothing against Hurst, or anyone else there, all good people. I just couldn't do it; but sure wanted to. Love the area, real laid back, more country than it is here (it is getting more city-fied here), GF's parents lived up there, now in laws, although all but her dad have since passed away. Hurst knew I couldn't work for that, but his hands were tied by upper management, they have a set way of doing things and there is no deviation from that. Typical corporate jobs if you ask me.
When they had the SxS stuff (under the bad boy name) they had a man working at that factory (which was in Melbourne, AR in the old Boeing factory at that time) that was TOP NOTCH. I'd have a question about something especially on the electric units and he had an answer every single time. Very, very good with people. We also understood each other quite well, he growed up in the area and you knew it, but he was also engineering-level intelligent, so he referred to himself as a bit of a "high tech redneck" at times during training. Super good guy, miss talking to him when I needed guidance. Last name Watts. Ironic that the guy who had all the knowledge of the electric vehicles at that time, named watts. There was another guy who worked there, the actual engineer who worked with the EV side (not the ICE side), can't remember his name but he was from off. I miss the days when I could call the people who knew what was going on; nowadays you call tech support, you might get an actual human, and chances are good that it'll be in Indonesia or wherever else....
Since then Hurst has some ownership of the company when Foster split off and took over Intimidator group which has been bought out by Toro in I think 2018(?).
Went out there the other day to visit FIL, which means I have to drive past the airport, and noticed that Bad Boy now has an aviation company...bad boy aviation, and they've got a really nice plane to fly around the world in. You can't miss it, it's panted up and looks almost like the trucks do, big company logo on the side. Im not an aviation expert so I can't tell you want kind of jet it is, but know it's big, 3 engine. Maybe falcon 50? Dunno but I'm sure it's not cheap!! While in the area I drove out to where Mark Martin's place was. Beautiful home overlooking the White River. Of course he doesn't live there no more. But his name is plastered all over the Ford dealer and a Powersports dealer, and then at Melbourne another dealer and yet another one I think in Ash Flat. My boss is part owner of the ones at Melbourne and Ash Flat.
