It is easier to know where you are headed in the future if you know where you’ve been in the past. We took that approach as we looked back at the past 25 years for the BizTimes Milwaukee anniversary issue. Rather than assemble a list of the biggest events or most important people, we’ve sought
It is easier to know where you are headed in the future if you know where you’ve been in the past. We took that approach as we looked back at the past 25 years for the BizTimes Milwaukee anniversary issue. Rather than assemble a list of the biggest events or most important people, we’ve sought to highlight trends, issues and companies that shaped where Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin are headed today. Certainly, picking just 25 topics to cover a 25-year period won’t touch on everything, but this list does present a glimpse into the forces – some local, some global – shaping our economy going forward.
Downtown revitalization
Downtown Milwaukee was one of many downtowns in large American cities that waned several decades ago as it lost people and jobs to the suburbs, but the trend has shown signs of reversal in the past 25 years.
Massive redevelopment efforts often led the way in downtown Milwaukee’s resurgence. The old Schlitz brewery, which was turned into an office campus in 1983, got a $30 million update in 2012 and is undergoing another. The former Pabst brewery underwent a dramatic transformation over several years and is now a mix of apartments, hotels, office buildings and more.
The RiverWalk system, which began in 1993, now catches the eyes of developers and urban enthusiasts alike.
An influx of condos and apartments boosted the population and brought new life to downtown.
City leaders often point to Northwestern Mutual’s new 32-story office tower as the catalyst for downtown Milwaukee’s latest renaissance. Since its announcement in 2013 and completion in 2017, a number of other major projects have moved forward such as the BMO Tower, and more companies have migrated downtown, including Bader Rutter and Graef-USA Inc.
There’s also Fiserv Forum, which served as a catalyst of its own for development west of the river. Other recent Westown projects include The Avenue and the Bradley Symphony Center.
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Significant highway projects
Southeastern Wisconsin’s freeway system is a vital component of the region’s economy. It enables companies to easily move goods in and out of the area.
But rebuilding and expanding the freeway corridors come at a high cost and controversy, as some say too much is spent on expanding Milwaukee-area freeways and not enough on mass transit.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has embarked on some of the biggest highway projects in the state’s history in recent decades, with plans for more.
The Marquette Interchange was rebuilt between 2004 and 2008 at a cost of $810 million. Following that was phases one and two of the Zoo Interchange reconstruction, which was substantially completed in 2018 at a cost of $1.7 billion. Work recently started on the interchange’s North Leg, the project’s final phase.
WisDOT last year wrapped up work on the I-94 North-South project, which was fast-tracked a few years ago due to the Foxconn announcement. The $1.9 billion project, which began in 2009, was finally completed in 2020.
Construction is to start this year on the latest southeastern Wisconsin freeway megaproject: a $550 million expansion of I-43 between Glendale and Grafton.
On deck is the $1.1 billion expansion of I-94 East-West between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges. It was put on pause by the Walker Administration, but Gov. Tony Evers is trying to get it back on track. He has requested the project be enumerated in the new two-year state budget.
Development of the I-94 North-South corridor
There likely are few hotter development corridors in the state than I-94 North-South between southern Milwaukee County and Pleasant Prairie.
It is bustling with new developments, spurred by commercial developers and companies moving to the area, many of them from across the state line. Defectors from Illinois often say that southeastern Wisconsin is more appealing due to its friendlier business climate and its availability of land.
Along the freshly rebuilt freeway are massive distribution centers developed for Amazon and Uline. Haribo’s gummy candy factory will soon join their ranks. Foxconn Technology Group’s campus also lines the corridor in Mount Pleasant, although it’s nowhere near the complex originally promised by the company.
Farmland along the corridor is turning to business parks. Elsewhere are landmark commercial developments such as the Ikea store in Oak Creek.
It wasn’t always this way. I-94 North-South was once a sleepy part of the region, while the I-94 East-West segment of the freeway in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties enjoyed most of the economic development attention.
Mass transit controversies
Wisconsin is a tale of two transportation worlds. On the one hand, massive freeway projects always seem to find a way to get funded and move forward, though not without controversy. On the other hand, mass transit projects seem to always hit major roadblocks, and even more controversy.
The stage was set in the late 2000s for Wisconsin to get high-speed rail service from Milwaukee to Madison, thanks to a federal stimulus program. But then newly elected Gov. Scott Walker declined the federal money and canceled the project.
Milwaukee’s downtown streetcar came with plenty of its own controversy. Debate over the streetcar goes back many years, but city officials agreed to provide local funds for it, combined with federal funds, in 2015. The streetcar opened in 2018. Additional extensions are in the works, but so far city leaders haven’t agreed on a funding plan, and some want a proposed Walker’s Point extension to go farther south than currently planned.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee County’s bus rapid-transit system is soon to break ground. It will run from Milwaukee to Wauwatosa.
State transportation leaders are moving forward with rail improvements that will allow trips to be added to the Milwaukee-to-Chicago Amtrak Hiawatha service, but they need to reconfigure some aspects due to some Illinois communities’ resistance to its original design.
Menomonee Valley revitalization
The Menomonee River Valley is perhaps Milwaukee’s greatest redevelopment success story of the past 25 years and a national model of economic and environmental sustainability.
The 4-mile-long stretch of land between the Harley-Davidson Museum and American Family Field was once filled with factories. But by the late 1900s, as those companies and jobs left, the area became blighted with abandoned industrial buildings and contaminated land.
The Menomonee Valley that exists today started taking shape back in 1998. That’s when the city and other public and private partners joined together to create a new vision for the area.
There have been many successes since then, including the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center; Potawatomi Hotel & Casino; public spaces such as Three Bridges Park and the Hank Aaron State Trail extension; the Harley-Davidson Museum; and redevelopment of the Milwaukee Gas Light Co. buildings.
The demise of Midwest Express
By 1995 Midwest Express had established itself as a successful and growing regional airline, based in the Milwaukee area and operating a hub at Mitchell International Airport. The “Best Care in the Air” had a loyal customer base that appreciated its high level of service, wide leather seats, and its quality food and beverage offerings, including its signature warm chocolate chip cookies.
The cult-like support of its customers helped Midwest Express grow, adding additional aircraft and more destinations.
Then the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks devastated the airline industry. That forced Midwest Express to start making changes to reduce its costs and lower fares, which meant the elimination of some amenities, such as gourmet meals served on china, which had set the airline apart.
In 2002, Midwest Express changed its name to Midwest Airlines. In 2007, a hostile takeover attempt by AirTran Airways was rebuffed by Midwest’s board and the company was instead sold to a private equity group, including Northwest Airlines. Just two years later, Midwest was sold again, to Republic Airways Holdings. A year later, Republic merged Midwest with Frontier Airlines, eliminating the Midwest Airlines brand.
A recent attempt by a group to revitalize the Midwest Express brand has so far been unsuccessful.
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Changing face of corporate Milwaukee
Some of the Milwaukee area’s most prominent corporate names in 1995 are no longer part of the local business landscape.
Look no further than the downtown Milwaukee skyline for evidence. The tallest office tower in the city, and state, is the 42-story U.S. Bank Center. Originally known as the First Wisconsin Center, the building was known as the Firstar Center in 1995, named after its anchor tenant. Firstar expanded with several acquisitions and in 2000 acquired U.S. Bancorp, assuming that company’s name and then moving the headquarters to its city, Minneapolis.
Milwaukee lost its other big bank headquarters when Marshall & Ilsley Corp., which was devastated by a large amount of nonperforming loans during the Great Recession, was acquired by Bank of Montreal in 2010, establishing the BMO Harris brand in Wisconsin.
One of the biggest changes to the region’s retail landscape was the loss of Boston Store, which was founded in Milwaukee in 1897. Its Milwaukee and York, Pennsylvania-based parent company, The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., went bankrupt in 2018 and went out of business, shuttering stores at Mayfair Mall, Bayshore, Southridge Mall and downtown Milwaukee.
Perhaps no corporate name in Milwaukee was more ubiquitous in 1995 than Miller Brewing Company. The company was then owned by Phillip Morris, which sold Miller in 2002 to South African Breweries. In 2008, it became part of the MillerCoors joint venture, which moved its headquarters to Chicago, and was then acquired by Molson Coors in 2016.
While the local business community lost those prominent corporate headquarters, other growing companies like American Family Insurance, Generac and Fiserv have emerged to take a leadership role in the area.
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Great Recession
Officially the Great Recession lasted from the third quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2009 in the United States. But its effects lasted much longer than that throughout the world, the nation and southeastern Wisconsin.
The Great Recession was largely a financial and residential real estate crisis, caused by reckless lending and financial practices that led to a housing market bubble. When the bubble burst the housing market collapsed and financial institutions took heavy losses. The impact reverberated from Wall Street to Main Street. Fearing the economy was on the verge of collapsing into a depression, the federal government funded a massive financial industry bailout, which supported firms across the industry, from major Wall Street financial institutions to local banks.
That wasn’t enough to save Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. Founded in Milwaukee in 1847, M&I Bank suffered heavy losses from the Great Recession and was then acquired by Bank of Montreal in 2010.
The housing market collapse was devastating to many homeowners who saw the value of their homes fall dramatically, in some cases lower than what they owed on their mortgage. That led to a foreclosure crisis that decimated the housing market. Low-income neighborhoods in Milwaukee were hit particularly hard.
The Great Recession created a credit crunch, which made it difficult for businesses to borrow money to grow. The real estate industry especially had a difficult time gaining access to capital.
The result was years of slow economic growth. However, the slow, steady growth lasted a long time, from 2010-‘19, until the economy was rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Racial disparities a persistent problem
Systemic racism, racial inequality and segregation are longstanding problems in America, and especially in Milwaukee.
In 2019, 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware-based financial company that produces financial news, ranked Milwaukee the worst city and Racine the second worst city in America for Black people to live.
In recent years, Milwaukee-area business and civic leaders have increasingly pointed to systemic racism and racial inequality as the biggest challenge facing the region and its economy.
A 2018 survey of members of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce identified racial disparities as the region’s biggest problem. It was the first time in the history of the MMAC’s member survey that racial inequality was identified as the No. 1 issue of concern.
In response, the MMAC launched its “Region of Choice” initiative, asking its members to sign a pledge to increase hiring of African American and Hispanic workers and to put more in positions of leadership. As part of that initiative, the MMAC wants to see 12,000 more African American and Hispanic employees, and 875 more managers of color, in the region by 2025.
As of January 2021, the MMAC has received commitments from more than 110 employers to the Region of Choice initiative, representing more than 140,000 employees in the region.
Initial Foxconn hype fizzles
Perhaps no business story has ever drawn more attention on southeastern Wisconsin than Foxconn Technology Group’s 2017 pledge to invest $10 billion and create 13,000 jobs while building an LCD factory in Mount Pleasant. There was the White House announcement, special legislation for $3 billion in incentives, fast-moving land acquisition, a presidential groundbreaking and questions along the way of whether the project would live up to the hype.
So far, it is tough to see the final project living up to the original vision pitched to Wisconsinites. True, a lot of dirt has moved, buildings have gone up and millions of dollars have been invested, but those things don’t add up to the kind of project that transforms an economy. Globally, Foxconn is involved in the kind of advanced manufacturing that could help push Wisconsin industry forward, but as it stands now, the project is a long way from the $1.4 billion in annual supply chain purchases that were originally expected.
For now, the Foxconn project is left with a lot of questions: What will the Mount Pleasant campus become? What will happen to the company’s contract with the state? Will local communities be left on the hook for the cost of infrastructure upgrades?
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Waukesha’s winding water journey
The city of Waukesha has been on a two-decade-long odyssey in search of a new source of water for its community. The EPA ordered Waukesha to get a new water source because its water has a high level of radium (a carcinogen). There’s been lots of squabbling, lobbying and politicking along the way, but the city finally has approval to divert Lake Michigan water outside the Great Lakes basin.
Despite planning to source water from Oak Creek, Waukesha eventually struck a deal with the city of Milwaukee. A groundbreaking was held in late 2020 on a nearly $300 million project that includes a combined 36 miles of supply and return pipeline. That work is expected to be done by 2023.
Even after the water is flowing, Waukesha’s water issues could shape events locally and internationally by how it impacts the city’s growth and how the precedent set by its diversion approval plays out around the Great Lakes.
Manufacturing employment declines
It is no secret that Wisconsin’s manufacturing employment has changed over the years and metro Milwaukee is no different. Since 1995, manufacturing has gone from around 23% of private sector employment to around 15%, a loss of about 45,000 jobs even before the COVID-19 pandemic. More of those jobs are now in the suburban counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington. In 2001, the WOW counties had 51% of the metro manufacturing employment, but by 2019 that had shifted to 57% to Milwaukee County’s 43%.
There are any number of reasons for these changes, from local policies and perceptions of manufacturing careers to technology changes and rising automation to globalization and geopolitics. At the same time, manufacturing has not left the region and its proponents say its local capabilities can compete with anyone. In fact, manufacturing has grown as a percentage of the region’s GDP, from less than 16% in 2002 to nearly 19% in 2013 and around 17% as of 2019.
Whether the sector grows or shrinks going forward will shape the careers of many people and destinies of a lot of companies.
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Union membership decline accelerated by Act 10, right-to-work
In 2000, Wisconsin was among the top 10 states for highest rates of union membership and representation. At the time, around 485,000 workers in the state were represented by unions, a figure that dipped to as low as 233,000 in 2018 before rebounding the past two years. Wisconsin went from 18.9% union representation to 8.6%. Last year the state had 10.2% representation.
That organized labor has seen declining numbers is not news, but the shift in Wisconsin over the past decade took the state to the middle of the pack in terms of representation rates. First in 2012 and then again since 2015, Wisconsin’s representation rates dipped below the U.S. as a whole. The shift is the result of major changes in the state’s labor laws, first with Act 10, which dramatically curtailed collective bargaining for most public-sector employees and then right-to-work, which prevents making union membership a condition of employment.
Proponents say changes like right-to-work make the state more attractive for economic development and opponents contend they take power away from workers. While unions have made gains in the state in recent years, they are a long way from having the influence they once held.
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Growth of e-commerce and retail struggles
The retail industry has experienced significant change during the past 25 years, as have the places that we shop in the Milwaukee area. During that time some stores and shopping centers in the area have closed, while several others have been built and some have been updated.
The retail industry has been upended by the rise of Amazon and e-commerce. As consumers have shifted purchasing habits away from brick and mortar, the health of regional shopping malls has severely declined, taking their big-box anchors down with them.
Northridge Mall in Milwaukee closed in 2003. Others have hung on through industry upheaval and the Great Recession, later catching a second wind.
Bayshore in Glendale has undergone two major redevelopment projects since the early 2000s. The most recent, following the exits of Sears and Boston Store, has sought to replace vacant retail space with brands that draw foot traffic, including Target and Total Wine & More. Brookfield Square has taken a similar redevelopment approach, adding dining and entertainment concepts like Whirlyball and Marcus Theatres’ Movie Tavern.
Shifts in local retail have laid fertile ground for new mixed-use developments such as The Corners of Brookfield and Drexel Town Square in Oak Creek, both offering a mix of retail, restaurants, residential and other uses.
Several major retail brands familiar to consumers 25 years ago are gone today, including Boston Store, a Milwaukee retail icon that disappeared when its Milwaukee-based parent company went out of business in 2018.
But Menomonee Falls-based Kohl’s Corp. wasn’t among the fallen. From 1995 to 2019, sales grew from $1.9 billion to almost $19 billion, with its national store count jumping from 150 to about 1,100. However, the company faces major challenges going forward after losing $163 million in 2020 and some of its investors are seeking new board members and a different direction for the company.
New venues for Bucks and Brewers
In 1996, a 0.1% sales tax was implemented for the construction of the Brewers’ new $392 million baseball stadium in the Menomonee River Valley. Miller Park, now American Family Field, opened in 2001 and before the COVID-19 pandemic drew an average of 2.7 million paid attendees annually, despite Milwaukee’s position as Major League Baseball’s smallest market.
Under the 23-year tax, residents in five counties contributed approximately $605 million to the ballpark’s construction and ongoing maintenance, but not without complaints and criticism. However, it has returned upwards of $2.5 billion in economic impact to the state (according to an MMAC-commissioned study), with nine years remaining in the current Brewers’ lease agreement.
When the Milwaukee Bucks opened Fiserv Forum in 2018, the new $524 million downtown sports and entertainment arena (paid for with a mix of public and private funds) brought an end of the Bradley Center’s 30-year life. But it was only the beginning of the new ownership’s big plans to develop 30 acres of vacant land surrounding the arena into the mixed-use Deer District. Fiserv Forum’s first year included a historic playoff run that generated national exposure and drew thousands to the newly complete entertainment block and a boon for downtown businesses.
The pandemic slowed the Bucks’ momentum on and off the court, but a five-year contract extension for two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo promises accelerated business recovery driven by star power – and the hope of a championship.
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Changes brewing for Brew City beer
The past 25 years saw the fall of big beer and the rise of microbreweries. For a city named after its legendary history of brewing, the shift in consumer tastes toward craft beer, wine and spirits left a mark.
In 1996, Pabst Brewing Co. shuttered its Milwaukee brewery after 150 years, leaving behind a 21-acre downtown campus and a dozen buildings, most of which eventually were redeveloped. Pabst returned to the complex in 2015 to open a microbrewery, but the operation didn’t survive the pandemic.
Miller Brewing Co., which had a 21% market share in the mid-‘90s, was acquired by SAB in 2002, later formed a joint venture with Molson Coors Brewing Co. to become MillerCoors LLC, and was fully acquired by Molson in 2006. Milwaukee has tried to hold on to what’s left of the Chicago-based brewer’s local footprint as it struggles to adapt to newer industry trends like hard seltzers.
Microbrewers Lakefront Brewery, Sprecher Brewing Co. and Milwaukee Brewing Co. emerged during the rebirth of local brewing in the 1980s and 1990s and paved the way for the city’s growing craft beer landscape, now about 40 breweries strong.
Major golf
The Greater Milwaukee Open had a decades-long history, including Tiger Woods’ professional debut in 1996. But the PGA Tour event, later named the U.S. Bank Championship, ceased operations after 2009 due to a lack of sponsorship.
Meanwhile, other parts of the region have hosted major championship golf events, starting with the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run and the 2004 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, both in Sheboygan County. Whistling Straits went on to host the U.S. Senior Open and two more PGA Championships, building a reputation fit for the Ryder Cup, taking place there in September.
Erin Hills was the site of the 2017 U.S. Open and will host the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open, as well as the 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship with Blue Mound Golf & Country Club. SentryWorld in Stevens Point was recently named host site of the 2023 U.S. Senior Open.
Wisconsin is nationally recognized as a golf destination thanks to the likes of Kohler Co. (which owns Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits), Erin Hills and newcomer Sand Valley, which has become a major destination in its own right since opening in 2017.
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Health system changes
A lot has changed in the local health care market during the past 25 years, beyond the large number of new or expanded hospitals and clinics that have been built.
Twenty-six years ago, there were a few more players in Milwaukee’s hospital scene, before a wave of consolidation swept the health care industry. In 1995, Columbia and St. Mary’s hospitals in Milwaukee combined forces, forming an entity that, four years later, was folded into the country’s largest Catholic health system, St. Louis-based Ascension. Ascension further expanded its regional reach with its 2016 acquisition of legacy health care system Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare’s southeastern Wisconsin operations.
The consolidation of the Milwaukee-area Catholic health systems allowed Ascension to grow its market share against competitors Aurora Health Care and Froedtert Health. Another big industry shakeup came in 2018, when Milwaukee-based Aurora and Downers Grove, Illinois-based Advocate Health merged to create a $12 billion health system, the 10th largest in the country.
Beyond those high-profile deals, the trend of mergers, acquisitions and increased partnerships among providers has played out throughout the state, with health systems often saying the deals boost efficiencies and quality of care. But in Wisconsin, where health care costs trend higher than the national average, many remain skeptical that patients will see those efficiencies reflected on their medical bill, as industry consolidation has rarely translated to lower costs for consumers.
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Calatrava and looming cultural challenges
The Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion and Burke Brise Soleil sculpture at the Milwaukee Art Museum quickly became a favorite Milwaukee landmark when they made their debut 20 years ago. As visually striking today as it was then, the wing-like structure stands as a revitalization symbol of one of the region’s many beloved cultural attractions and a testament to the philanthropic community successfully rallying behind an ambitious project. Originally planned as a modest addition, the project swelled in size to become a much higher-profile, $125 million undertaking and was supported by a large capital campaign. The facility has since garnered national and international awards and become a major point of pride for the city.
Today, the homes of Milwaukee County’s other cultural attractions – which were largely built in the mid-20th century – are at a critical juncture. Many are undergoing major capital projects, including the Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Marcus Performing Arts Center and Milwaukee County Zoo. With those facilities needs now at an inflection point, the community yet again is being asked to think big and lend its support for these projects that, if done right, could breathe new life into the cultural institutions that make the region distinctive.
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COVID-19
The first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic have claimed the lives of more than a half-million people in the U.S., brought devastation to many industries and transformation to others, upended learning for an entire school year, and exacerbated already existing disparities in health outcomes along racial and socioeconomic lines.
In the past year, more than 560,000 people have tested positive for the virus in Wisconsin and more than 6,500 people lost their lives to it, a large majority of whom were 70 or older. Stay-at-home orders forced many businesses to shut down or widely scale back operations. Office workers continued their work from home, while essential workers remained on the front lines to keep the economy running. Political divisions stymied efforts to bring the virus under control, as political leaders debated how to balance public health concerns with their economic effects. Meanwhile, researchers worked at warp speed to bring effective vaccines to the public within nine months of the pandemic’s onset.
It’s hard to predict how long the reverberations of the health and economic crisis will linger once the country emerges from the pandemic. With the vaccines now being distributed more widely, there is optimism that the state is turning a corner, but the road to full recovery is long and many question what a “new normal” will look like in a post-COVID world.
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Summerfest evolves
In 1999, Summerfest received its designation from the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Largest Music Festival. Bo Black, the leader who steered Summerfest to become the largest event of its kind and served as its public face for two decades, departed the organization in 2003, with Don Smiley hired as her successor in 2004.
Since then, millions of dollars have been invested in upgrades to Summerfest’s home, Henry Maier Festival Park, including new stages and amenities. The highest profile of those capital projects – the park’s $51.3 million American Family Insurance Amphitheater revamp – came to fruition at a less than ideal time. The grand opening of the renovated amphitheater was planned for the 2020 festival, which ended up being canceled due to COVID-19.
Traditionally held as a 10-day festival in late June and early July, Summerfest will make its debut under a new format this year, as the event is held over three weekends in September. With attendance having fallen from a peak of more than 1 million to 766,192 over the past 20 years, it remains to be seen if the year-plus-long lockdown will lead concert goers to flock to the lakefront later this year or if health-related hesitations will dampen turnout.
Harley’s rise and Decline
The smooth and distinct roar of a Harley-Davidson engine coupled with the company’s black and orange branding fueled a fanatical fanbase who saw Harley not just as a product but as a lifestyle in the ‘90s. In 1995, Harley-Davidson shipped 105,000 motorcycles. By 2005, Harley more than tripled that figure to 329,000 and shipments peaked the next year at 349,000, plus another 12,460 Buell motorcycles.
The company’s growth persisted into the 2000s until Harley was hit by the Great Recession, reporting $55 million in losses in 2009. Profits rose to $844 million in 2014, but the company has slid ever since.
The U.S. launched retaliatory aluminum and steel tariffs in 2018, prompting Harley to shift some motorcycle production to overseas facilities for hogs sold in European markets. Then-president Donald Trump told his supporters to boycott Harley following the measure.
Harley has since turned over its entire leadership team and launched The Rewire, a strategic initiative aimed at resetting the company’s operations. Harley has turned its focus on a new genre of motorcycle popularized in Europe with the launch of Pan America touring models. Now Harley must convert the reverence of its diehard fans to riders in new markets to succeed.
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Quad consolidates and grows
Sussex-based Quad/Graphics Inc. entered the new millennium with an immediate hurdle after its founder Harry Quadracci died unexpectedly. Harry’s brother Tom Quadracci assumed leadership until 2006 when Harry’s youngest son, Joel, took the reins on the company’s 35th anniversary.
Four years later, Joel Quadracci made a bold move to acquire World Color in a $1.3 billion deal, making Quad the second largest print and integrated media solutions provider in the hemisphere. Quad became a publicly traded company the same year.
The following years were marked by several strategic acquisitions, expanding Quad’s capabilities and its global presence. However, shifting media and advertising trends in the industry pressured Quad to innovate and consolidate – evidenced by the company’s 47 plant closures since 2010.
Wisconsin generally benefited from Quad’s consolidation efforts when it shifted work from closed out-of-state facilities back to the Badger State. In 2018 the company was setting up to acquire Chicago-based LSC Communications in a $1.4 billion deal, but the Department of Justice blocked the deal because Quad/Graphics would have dominated the magazine, catalog and book printing markets.
Now Quad must position itself for a new age of content distribution, with thousands of Wisconsin jobs hanging in the balance.
Milwaukee Tool’s growth
A shift from corded to cordless tools paired with a focus on innovation catapulted Milwaukee Tool’s revenue from millions to several billions of dollars over the last quarter century. By 2005, Hong Kong-based Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd acquired Milwaukee Tool, kicking off the company’s journey of becoming a disruptive innovator in the industry across multiple tool and accessory categories.
Milwaukee Tool would find its stride over the next decade, harnessing lithium-ion battery technology and launching multiple cordless systems.
Milwaukee Tool grew its local employee base from hundreds to thousands, and by 2016, the company announced plans to expand its Brookfield headquarters by 200,000 square feet.
Three years of subsequent growth brought Milwaukee Tool to $3.7 billion in sales in 2018. The same year, TTI chief executive officer Joe Galli Jr. told investors to expect 20% growth each year for the next three years, a pace that would bring Milwaukee Tool’s revenue near $6.5 billion by the end of 2021.
Milwaukee Tool has grown 23% annually on average for five years and is now building an 120,000 square-foot technology center in Menomonee Falls as part of a second corporate campus that could eventually reach 2.5 million square feet. Few in the region have captured a cultural shift as expertly as Milwaukee Tool, which has served as an example of what Wisconsin manufacturers will need to do to compete globally.
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GE Healthcare’s evolving presence
In July 1998, Marquette Electronics co-founder Michael Cudahy contacted Jeffrey Immelt, then president of GE Medical Systems, to discuss cooperating on the development of a cardiology reading station for a common customer. By the end of September, they announced an $808 million deal for GE to acquire Cudahy’s company. GE Healthcare already had a long and significant history in the region, but the deal was one of several moments that altered that presence over the past 25 years.
GE itself held its annual meeting at the Waukesha County Expo Center in 2002, and the company has thousands of employees in the state. In the mid-2000s GE Healthcare made a significant investment in facilities in Wauwatosa, but its headquarters also shifted to London. Years later, the HQ returned to the U.S., but to Chicago, not Wisconsin.
More recently, the company announced plans to shift thousands of jobs to Wauwatosa and West Milwaukee as part of a $50 million investment. Its Waukesha campus near I-94 has been listed for sale, opening new possibilities for the site. GE’s Wisconsin presence may have evolved over the years, but its future will also significantly shape the direction of multiple communities in the region.
