Capital Region Business Journal

In a state with lackluster manufacturing employment, Generac Power Systems is experiencing rapid growth, a swelling work force and a decade of plant expansions.

After hiring 400 employees this year, the Waukesha-based producer of generators conducted a job fair in August to recruit 100 more workers for positions in facilities at Whitewater, Eagle and Waukesha.

"Our company continues to grow and that is creating an abundance of new jobs," said Stephanie Borowski, vice president of human resources.

In the last five years Wisconsin has lost nearly 93,000 manufacturing jobs, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, and many of those were due to cheaper labor overseas and outsourcing.

In 2000, average monthly manufacturing employment in the state stood at 594,000 jobs. Last year, that number dropped to 501,800, said Terry Ludeman, chief economist for the state Department of Workforce Development.

This year, the state is poised to recapture about 4,000 jobs, Ludeman said.

Generator sales are fueling the hiring wave as Generac continues to grab market share in residential, commercial and industrial sectors.

Those gains are quickly turning the company into one of the region's largest employers. Plants at Eagle and Whitewater employ nearly 2,000 workers, according to industry estimates.

Although the 45-year-old privately held company won't release hiring numbers, job turnover trends or sales figures, it does acknowledge steady year-over-year sales growth.

Last year, sales grew 70 percent over 2003. This year, the company is posting a 40 percent increase over 2004, officials report.

Generac says it has more than 90 percent of the home standby generator market, citing its focus on the standby power market - unlike competitors Caterpillar, Cummins and Kohler. The company says it sells more residential generators than all of its competitors combined.

"This is our primary business," said Dawn Tabat, president and chief operations officer. "When you're going to do this, and this is all you do, you'd better set yourself up to be better than everyone else. I think that's what Generac is successful in doing."

Tabat notes the company is "very proud of the fact that not only have we had double-digit growth, we've had more than 30 years of sustainable growth -that's significant."

Employees have shared in that success, she said. Generac has paid nine consecutive quarterly bonuses based on earnings, with no "significant work force reductions" reported since the 1980s, Tabat said.

Consumer demand for portable generators has been rising. Power outages, the threat of terrorism and a series of severe hurricanes striking the United States have all heightened public awareness of the need for backup power systems.

But Tabat said the company's gains haven't been based on disasters so much as shifting trends.

"More people now see home standby systems as a necessity," Tabat said. "When you need it, you need it. You may not die without it, but you really, really depend upon it."

For its first 25 years, Generac dedicated itself to small portable generators. "Sears & Roebuck was our first customer in 1961. That gave us national distribution," Tabat said.

By the 1980s, the company was pushing into broader commercial markets and higher-end industrial applications, including the new QT Series, a line of automatic standby generators fueled by natural gas designed for small- to medium-sized businesses.

Tabat said Generac is currently No. 3 in commercial and industrial applications.

The company now distributes through Home Depot, Lowe's and various independent dealers.

Generac defies manufacturing trends with steady growth

By Kimber Williams

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