Generac Power Systems will break ground in the coming months on a $20 million expansion at its headquarters outside Waukesha that will create a research-and-development lab.
The project is one example of the fast-growing company’s ongoing commitment to Wisconsin even as it adds manufacturing capacity in other parts of the country, president and CEO Aaron Jagdfeld said Friday at the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Power Breakfast.
“We continue to invest in our facilities in Wisconsin — more automation, more equipment more people,” Jagdfeld said during the event at The Pfister hotel in downtown Milwaukee.
Generac (NYSE: GNRC) invested over $100 million the past half-dozen years remodeling the space in Genesee Depot that serves as its corporate headquarters, Jagdfeld said. The company has about 1,000 employees there and over 400 of those are engineers, he said.
“It’s a pretty meaningful expansion — that’s something that we’re looking forward to,” Jagdfeld said.
The company is working to begin construction by the end of the second quarter, said company spokesperson Tami Kou.
The company in September 2021 said it will invest $53 million in its Wisconsin facilities and creating more than 700 jobs in the state by 2024. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. will award $9 million in Enterprise Zone tax credits to Generac Holdings Inc. if the company completes the investments and creates the jobs.
Jagdfeld said the company has about 9,500 employees and about 900 job openings in Wisconsin and elsewhere. The company anticipates 35% revenue growth this year after Generac achieved 50% growth last year to $3.74 billion, he said.
The R&D lab will be constructed on the north side of the existing headquarters structure, Jagdfeld said.
The $20 million project cost includes equipment, he said. The lab will be for the engineering team that works on products Generac manufactures at its plant in Oshkosh, Jagdfeld said.
To meet ongoing strong demand for Generac's home standby generators in the United States, the company opened a plant in Trenton, South Carolina, in July 2021 that already has 650 employees, Jagdfeld said. The plant will add 150 more employees over the next several months, he said.
Future manufacturing expansion likely won’t be in Wisconsin as the company looks to make products closer to customers in other parts of the country. Jagdfeld said Generac is considering a new location in the southwestern United States.
Logistics costs also are a driver of the company expanding closer to customers, Jagdfeld said.