"Our Wisconsin roots and the Milwaukee Electronics name have served us well. But the name no longer accurately represents our business," Stoehr said.
The company will continue its growth orientation, with intentions to open additional manufacturing facilities through acquisitions and start-ups. "We’ve chosen to decentralize our business and structure the company to be closer to our existing customer base," Stoehr said.
Along with the naming structure, a redesigned Web site, www.perfect-product.com, has been launched, and a branding campaign has begun.
MEC Northwest, in Portland, Ore., was acquired in 1999. MEC Mexico and MEC Southwest, in Tecate, Mexico and Tecate, Calif., were opened in December.
The public relations/public affairs firm of Tries & Rice has formed a strategic alliance with Donald Stitt, former state legislator and Wisconsin Republican Party chairman, to offer government relations and public policy advocacy services. The firm will operate out of offices at 322 E. Michigan St., Suite 600, in Milwaukee, and at 10 E. Doty St., Suite 800, in Madison.
Superior Special Services will change its name to Onyx Special Services. With the change, Superior adopted the name of its parent company, Onyx. Onyx Special Services, headquartered in Milwaukee, provides environmental remediation, abatement, emergency response and construction services in Wisconsin and throughout the nation.
The Peltz Group and Waste Management have joined to form the Recycle America Alliance, a new business that represents a long-term venture to combine the resources and assets of the two companies into a national recycling operation. Under the agreement, Waste Management will combine the majority of its recycling assets with The Peltz Group’s assets to form a new company that will provide recycling, materials brokerage services, container processing and trading. Waste Management will own about 90% of the new firm, which will operate as a consolidated subsidiary of Waste Management and will be directed by a management team of former officers and managers of both companies. The Peltz Group will own the remaining 10% of the business.
WorkWise, a Milwaukee-based provider of efficiency-oriented programs for manufacturers, has purchased the assets of Integrated Business Systems (IBS), based in Des Moines, Iowa.
IBS develops an e-manufacturing suite of Web-enabled applications, which integrate with WorkWise’s product, Time Critical Manufacturing (TCMï). The e-manufacturing suite of products purchased by WorkWise includes: a Web-enabled front office system with e-business capabilities, a Web-enabled shop floor data collection system, a Web-enabled radio-frequency warehouse management application and a Web-enabled outside processing module. WorkWise plans to further integrate the e-manufacturing suite with TCM.
"The acquisition of IBS will provide benefits for our customers in a number of areas," said Wayne Wedell, president of WorkWise. "The e-manufacturing suite of products, developed by IBS, are Web-enabled, built on the latest proven technologies and already integrate with our TCM applications at multiple customer sites. These products further extend the TCM backbone, helping to provide solutions to some of today’s complex issues in the areas of e-commerce, lean manufacturing, warehouse management and vendor fulfillment." He adds, "In addition to the e-manufacturing suite of products, the experienced staff at IBS has also joined WorkWise, furthering our commitment to serving our customers."
"IBS and WorkWise already share many of the same customers, so the acquisition of IBS will further leverage initiatives already in place", said Lloyd Saville, president of IBS. "Some of the key benefits of the acquisition include: better integration of the IBS/WorkWise products, improved overall support, and new technologies/functionality available to the TCM product line."
WorkWise has its headquarters at 12000 W. Park Pl. on Milwaukee far northwest side.
First MidAmerica Investment Corp., based in St.Joseph, Mo., has opened its first branch office in the Milwaukee market,at 1234 E. Juneau Ave. in Milwaukee. Founded in 2001, the firm focuses on individual investors. The Milwaukee office branch manager is Joan C. Levine, a vice president in the firm. Gayle L. LaVora is director of operations.
Feb. 7, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
