Superstorm Sandy Means Business for Milwaukee-Area Firms

November 2 -- Wisconsin generator manufacturers expect to feel the effects of superstorm Sandy for months as demand for their products grows in its aftermath.

Superstorm Sandy’s path of destruction across the East Coast and inland was rare both in its geographic scope and number of people affected, generator manufacturers said.

Generac Holdings Inc. estimated that at its peak, Sandy was expected to leave 8 million without power — 2 million more than Hurricane Irene last year, said Aaron Jagdfeld, president and chief executive officer of Generac, which makes home standby and portable generators.

“The devastation is just substantial and the impact of this storm, although Irene impacted a lot of people, this one impacted even more,” said Todd Teske, chairman, president and CEO of Wauwatosa-based Briggs and Stratton Corp., whose products include home standby and portable generators. “From my experience, this is as big of a storm as we’ve seen in several years.”

Briggs and Stratton ramped up production of generators over the past couple of weeks, authorizing overtime and planning to hire temporary workers, Teske said.

“We’re shipping out virtually around the clock,” Teske said.

Teske expected this storm to follow the pattern of other major storms and increase immediate demand for Briggs and Stratton portable generators, followed by higher demand for its home standby generators.

Other Wisconsin generator makers have been extremely busy over the past couple of weeks and expect that to continue.

Kohler Co., a Kohler-based privately held company whose products include standby generators, could see an impact on sales for up to six months, said Melanie Tydrich, Kohler senior channel manager of residential and light commercial products.

“We’re looking to build more (generators) than we had planned to” in previous production estimates, Tydrich said.

Genesee-based Generac expects Sandy to increase demand for its home standby generators over the next six to 12 months, Jagdfeld said.

The storm has prompted Generac to make plans to hire about 100 production workers and put manufacturing operations in a Jefferson facility that it initially intended to use for warehousing and distribution, Jagdfeld told The Business Journal Oct. 31.

The 252,500-square-foot facility, 900 N. Parkway in Jefferson’s North Industrial Park, is expected to be operational by Jan. 1, Jagdfeld said. He expects the company to add between 100 and 200 new employees total over the next year between its Whitewater and Jefferson facilities.

Generac has experienced a 17 percent compounded annual growth rate in home standby generator sales over the past decade, but only 2.5 percent of U.S. households have standby generators, Jagdfeld said.

 www.bizjournals.com     Jeff Engel