Northeast Wisconsin businesses fare better than others in state

Posted on Jan. 29, 2010

Northeast Wisconsin businesses weathered the economic storm of 2009 better than firms in the Milwaukee and Madison areas, according to a new report from First Business Bank.

Last fall, First Business Bank conducted separate economic surveys of Northeast Wisconsin, Dane County and Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. While those separate results were shared with each unique community in December, First Business Bank pooled all the information together and looked at the state as a whole to compare the economic atmosphere across the regions.

(To read more details about First Business Bank’s survey of Northeast Wisconsin, which was sponsored by Insight Publications and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, please see this story from January’s edition of Insight Magazine.)

“The results show that the three geographic areas surveyed are all quite comparable,” says Mickey Noone, president - Northeast Region of First Business Bank. "The Northeast did see lower declines than the other survey regions in sectors such as profitability and sales revenue which may be attributed to a higher number of business-to-business firms located in the Northeast."

All three regions of the state did see declines in all seven economic indicators including: sales revenue; profitability; total operating costs as a percentage of revenue; capital expenditures; number of employees; overall wage changes; changes in pricing; and operating capacity. This is also the first time in the survey's history a majority, 52 percent, of firms did not meet expectations. Sales were down overall and respondents that had steep sales declines, greater than a 10 percent decline, were over double that of the previous year.

But while 2009 was rough, optimism is high for 2010, says Mark Meloy, President and CEO of First Business Bank - Madison. "Clearly there were challenges in 2009, but nearly 50 percent of businesses, and higher figures in some regions, expect increased sales revenue this year. That confidence says a lot about the character of the states' business owners,” he says.

To read the entire report, please visit www.firstbusiness.com/survey . An eight-minute podcast highlighting the report results is available at www.firstbusiness.com/podcast.

-       By MaryBeth Matzek