Milwaukee-based Derse Inc., one of the largest designers and builders of trade show exhibits in the country, informed state and local officials that it will terminate 10 employees and lay off an additional 77 as its industry has been shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The trade show industry that we are part of has
Milwaukee-based Derse Inc., one of the largest designers and builders of trade show exhibits in the country, informed state and local officials that it will terminate 10 employees and lay off an additional 77 as its industry has been shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The trade show industry that we are part of has been entirely decimated with every show in the country cancelled or postponed, and therefore we are forced to lay off a significant portion of our workforce,” Derse vice president of human resources Angela Novotney wrote in a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice to the state. “While we hope that many of these layoffs are temporary, it is solely dependent on when in-person trade shows resume.”
Most of the layoffs occurred on Thursday, but additional layoffs will occur on June 19, June 30 and July 15, Novotney said in her letter.
The letter said that 26 of the employees affected by the layoffs are members of the International United Painters and Allied Trades union.
Derse chief executive officer Brett Haney said the company is hoping to bring back the laid off employees in the fall. The company is hopeful that trade shows will start to resume in the third and fourth quarters of this year and will pick up significantly during the first quarter of 2021.
[caption id="attachment_487222" align="alignright" width="500"] Brett Haney[/caption]
"We'll get through," Haney said. "We're well-positioned to weather the storm. We're optimistic about the future, but there are certainly a couple more tough months ahead."
Derse’s headquarters is located at 3800 W. Canal St., near Miller Park.
The company was founded in 1948 as a sign painting business and had grown to be extremely successful in recent years. In 2019 its revenues were expected to be $170 million. Last year the company was named one of the winners of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce’s Council of Small Business Executives Future 50 Awards. The company has also been named to the Deloitte Wisconsin 75 list of the state’s largest privately and closely held companies.
As of last year the company's workforce had grown to more than 500, including around 130 in the Milwaukee area. Derse also has divisions located in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Dallas and Las Vegas.
The company is not shutting down any of its facilities, Haney said.
The first two month of the year were the best in the company's history, and then COVID-19 hit, Haney said. The pandemic's impact to the trade show industry is similar to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which resulted in a severe drop in travel and convention activity for several months, he said.
Derse was featured in a Sept. 16, 2019 cover story in BizTimes Milwaukee. Its bread and butter is in building exhibits and booths for customers to use at trade shows, but the company also provides services for events off the show floor and for the permanent environment at a customer’s facility.
Work for displays at company facilities has improved in recent months, Haney said, as companies have diverted their marketing budgets from trade shows to other things.
To help fill the void in recent months, Derse has found other work, including subcontracting work for temporary health care facilities including the alternate care facility at State Fair Park, he said. The company has retooled its facilities to handle those projects.
Derse has also spent recent months ramping up its virtual trade show offerings, Haney said.
But the company remains optimistic that the live trade show industry will recover in time.
"Live events will come back," Haney said. "People want to interact with each other."
