Industries

Brian Bennett is a partner and founder of STIR Advertising + Integrated Messaging, a national integrated advertising and marketing communications firm based in Milwaukee. Successful, bold businesses have some key characteristics in common, he says.

Menomonee Falls-based Magnetek Inc. reported fourth quarter net income of $1.0 million, or 31 cents per share, down from $2.6 million, or 80 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Employment levels throughout greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the United States are expected to continue shifting positively during the second quarter of 2013, according to the newest employment outlook survey released by ManpowerGroup.

The Milwaukee Brewers and Johnson Controls Inc. announced a multi-year extension of their current marketing partnership, which includes the naming rights to the Johnson Controls Stadium Club, the fine dining area inside Miller Park formerly known as the NYCE Stadium Club.

Milwaukee-based mining equipment manufacturer Joy Global Inc. announced that Michael W. Sutherlin, president and chief executive officer, plans to retire at the end of this year.

The union representing workers at Caterpillar Inc.'s South Milwaukee plant has asked Milwaukee Area Technical College to stop training salaried and management personnel for production jobs.

As the heat of a fire started raising the temperatures on the computer systems at the Echo Lake Foods plant in Burlington on Jan. 30, technicians at Xenitel, a Waukesha information technology (IT) service company, took quick action to preserve the plant's data.

The Vollrath Co. LLC in Sheboygan is reshoring some of its production from China because it has become less expensive to manufacture one of its products here.

Michael Crowley Jr., chief executive officer of Brown Deer-based Bank Mutual Corp., will retire into a non-executive chairman role on July 1, when Bank Mutual president Dave Baumgarten will become CEO. The company's board selected Baumgarten to join the bank as Crowley's successor in 2010. Since then, he has made quite a few changes at the company. Looking forward, Baumgarten says he plans to focus on making acquisitions. BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Molly Newman recently interviewed Baumgarten. The following are excerpts from that interview.

While current retirees have been able to largely rely on a safety net of Social Security, pensions and, in some cases, retiree health insurance, younger workers will have to take a much more proactive approach in planning their retirement income, according to Rebekah Barsch, vice president of market strategy at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.