| abstract | - Simplicity was founded by William J. Niederkorn in 1922, and started building riding garden tractors in 1939. Between 1941 and 1945, due to World War II, Simplicity Manufacturing temporarily halted production of lawn and garden products and manufactured electric fence controllers and external surface grinders to satisfy the War Production Board. Allis-Chalmers purchased the company in 1965, and Simplicity's management bought it back in 1983. Simplicity Manufacturing celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1997. Sometime after AGCO purchased Deutz-Allis from Deutz-Fahr and KHD, Simplicity took over building and selling the Deutz-Allis Lawn & Garden Equipment. The name was later changed to Agco-Allis Lawn & Garden Equipment, and then to AGCO Lawn & Garden Equipment to reflect the changes within the AGCO Corporation. After AGCO purchased Massey Ferguson, Simplicity began building and selling the Massey Ferguson Lawn & Garden Equipment. Simplicity bought the Snapper company in 2002, though ironically, Snapper, previously built Massey Ferguson lawn tractors many years before. Over the years, Simplicity has also built lawn & garden tractors for J. C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Viking (part of Stihl), Homelite and Rapid. Hinomoto/Toyosha built some of the larger compact tractors sold as Simplicity, Deutz-Allis and Allis-Chalmers. In 2009, Simplicity began building the Allis-Chalmers Lawn & Garden Equipment.
* 1989, purchased the Middlesworth company of Greentown, Indiana, USA, a manufacturer of zero-turn mowers
* 2002, purchased the Snapper company
* 2004, was purchased by Briggs & Stratton
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