Excerpted from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Andres Guerra Luz

Wisconsin-based manufacturer Fisher Barton Inc. announced Wednesday that it is expanding operations at two of its Watertown locations, adding 80 positions.

The company will upgrade equipment and hire employees for its manufacturing facilities at Fisher Barton Blades and Fisher Barton Specialty Products, which are located at 300 Air Park Drive and 1040 S.12 St., respectively.

“Our commitment to manufacturing in Wisconsin continues, and we’re excited to be able to expand our business at our facilities here in Watertown,” said Igor Zelenovskiy, CEO of Fisher Barton.

Watertown is home to three Fisher Barton facilities, two of which are manufacturing facilities and one at 700 S. Water St. that is a state-of-the-art technology center.

In an effort to streamline its operations, the company is transitioning more of its manufacturing work to Watertown, where the facilities can operate closer to the technology center, allowing for faster product design and implementation to better serve customers, Zelenovskiy said.

Watertown Mayor John David said he is glad that the company is planning to expand operations in the city.

“We’re really happy to have them in Watertown,” David said. “They provide a lot of people with employment and are community-minded.”

Fisher Barton specializes in manufacturing high-wear components and blades for various industries such as agriculture, construction, mining, medical care, oil and gas, and other needs such as yard and turf work.

The international company has nine manufacturing locations, including Illinois, Texas, Vietnam, and the six locations in Wisconsin.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 28, 2017

Madison, WI – The Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) recently released the full results of its third annual Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Survey. This survey is used to capture quantitative and qualitative data about workforce demographics, business D & I efforts, and community engagement while providing companies with a vehicle to self-assess strengths and opportunities relative to diversity in their workforce.

“A diverse workforce is vital to the sustained economic growth of the region,” said MadREP CEO Paul Jadin. “Assessing the progress of diversity and inclusion efforts by Madison Region employers is a critical step in improving our practices and I am pleased that we not only see a more responsive business community, but also improvements in our practices.”

The survey was sent to a random sample of 2,464 employers (drawn from 7,818 organizations with 10 or more employees) and received 468 responses (a 30% increase over last year) yielding a confidence interval of plus/minus 4.4%. While companies of all sizes responded, 76% have fewer than 50 employees. All eight counties in the region were represented in the results, and companies from 19 of the 20 industry sectors responded.

Selected year over year survey findings include:

• 13.4% of supervisory positions were held by non-White workers, compared to 9.8% in 2016
• 7% of top-level leadership positions were held by non-White workers, compared to 4.6% in 2016
• 22% of respondents stated they have a written diversity statement, compared to 14% from last year
• 16% of respondents reported having staff dedicated to diversity and inclusion efforts, compared to 10% last year

“While we are happy to see many results from the survey this year that more closely match the actual demographics for the region, there is still more work for us to do as a region to embrace diversity and inclusion as a means of economic development,” added Gene Dalhoff, MadREP vice president of education. “MadREP’s Leadership & Diversity workgroup is studying ways to accomplish that.”

The survey was conducted by the Madison Region’s four technical colleges; Blackhawk Technical College, Madison College, Moraine Park Technical College and Southwest Tech. Visit www.madisonregion.org/about/research-and-reports/ to access the survey overview and complete report.

Contacts:
Katy Pettersen, kpettersen@madisonregion.org, 608.571.0404
Gene Dalhoff, gdalhoff@madisonregion.org, 608.571.0403

 

Excerpted from Janesville Gazette
By Neil Johnson

Grainger’s Wright Road facility is larger in size and scope than most companies in Janesville, and Grainger’s employee headcount is among the largest under one roof in Janesville; it now totals more than 1,000 employees, spokesman Tony Macrito said.

Of those, 650 now work in the call center, servicing customers who order some of the hundreds of thousands of industrial products Grainger supplies to customers.

And the company continues to hire in Janesville.

Operations continues to grow in Janesville, company officials said, in part because the sprawling facility on the city’s east side has effectively become one of Grainger’s three national hubs for customer support.

Over the last year, Grainger has added hundreds of call employees in Janesville as it consolidated call centers from 150 locations across the country to just three.

Under the restructuring, Grainger’s Janesville facility is resetting the plan of attack with new management, continued hiring and a growing emphasis on grooming some existing employees to become members of an expanding team of supervisors.

Part of the interior buildout includes four 16-seat classrooms equipped with 120-inch TVs to train new employees.

Another training room recently had 25 employees in an “emerging leader” seminar for newly promoted Grainger supervisors. Formerly, employees rising through the ranks had to travel to Grainger’s Lake Forest, Illinois, headquarters for weeks of training.

Grainger has ramped up its operations and hiring in Janesville dramatically over the last year while a recovering economy has pushed the local unemployment rate down to 4 percent or lower.

During that time, the pool of available workers has shrunk, and that’s strained some area employers who need to expand.

Contact center director Shaw Mulligan said Grainger’s national call center consolidation has brought some employees into Janesville from far and wide, but he said Grainger’s hiring demand is largely being filled by local people.

“If there’s a hiring strain (in Janesville), I’m not seeing it here,” Mulligan said. “We’re really going forward fast, and I’ve been very happy with the talent in Janesville. It’s kept coming.”

Read the full article.

 

Excerpted from BizTimes
By Andrew Weiland

Startup accelerator gener8tor, which has offices in Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, was named one of the top accelerator programs in the United States by the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project for the third year in a row.

Gener8tor was given a gold ranking, which places it in the top 16 accelerator programs in the nation.

“This ranking reflects the commitment from our entrepreneurs, startups, mentors and investors who are working to build a stronger tomorrow across the region and the country,” says Troy Vosseller, gener8tor co-founder.

The Seed Accelerator Rankings Project is an independent research entity run by academics affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rice University and the University of Richmond to measure the relative performance of startup accelerator programs active in the United States. The rankings are based on weighted metrics, including the valuations of startups that have completed each program, fundraising statistics, exits and the overall satisfaction level of participating companies.

Gener8tor was founded in 2012. Together, its 54 alumni companies have gone on to raise more than $110 million in follow-on financing and employ more than 1,500 people.

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Judy Newman

Lucigen Corp. is being noticed for working with customers abroad.

The Middleton biotechnology company was one of 32 companies and organizations across the country honored by the U.S. Department of Commerce this week for exports of their goods and services. Lucigen received a 2017 President’s “E” Award for recording a sustained increase in export sales over the past four years.

Earlier this month, the company received a 2017 Wisconsin Governor’s Export Award.

Lucigen makes biomedical research products. With the expansion of its distribution network as well as the addition of new products, it has nearly doubled product sales from less than $6 million in 2014 to $11 million in 2016. Product sales are expected to hit nearly $20 million in 2017, said Glaselyn Miller, director of global sales and distribution.

International sales are an increasing part of Lucigen’s growth and have more than doubled over the past three years, Miller said.

Employment at Lucigen also is on the upswing. The company has 65 employees, including 10 added in the past year, and plans to hire another 15 to 20 this year, Miller said.

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