That kind of growth is a success story for the Wisconsin Development Fund, which gave the fledgling ReGENco a loan of $750,000 in 1999. Given the growth of the company and the jobs it has created, the loan, which will be repaid in less than 10 years, was a solid investment for the state.
ReGENco also received a $250,000 loan from the City of West Allis in 1999, when the company was formed by a group of mangers and employees who had been essentially abandoned by Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp.’s decision to close the West Allis plant.
With the help of some private investors and the public loans, ReGENco has not only survived, it has thrived.
The company has built a solid reputation for servicing and repairing steam turbine generators – a specialty operation that requires high ceilings and two 150-ton cranes to handle large pieces of machinery.
ReGENco’s client base has grown to include nearly 40 customers in 22 states and Puerto Rico.
The success earned ReGENco a place this year in the "Future 50" list of southeastern Wisconsin’s fastest-growing companies, presented by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and its Council of Small Business Executives.
Most of ReGENco’s clients are investor-owned utilities, including Milwaukee-based We Energies, the utility arm of Wisconsin Energy Corp.
Because the utilities are having trouble gaining permission to build new power generation plants, they are having to rely on older plants. The turbines in those older plants are being used more as the demand for electricity continues to grow, and the breakdowns are becoming more frequent.
That equation has spelled growth opportunities for ReGENco, which has ramped up its workforce to 100 employees and has increased its working space from 75,000 to 125,000 square feet.
ReGENco recently opened regional offices in Atlanta and in Richmond, Va.
Not bad, considering ReGENco’s original business plan projected only 12 customers.
However, ReGENco chief executive officer John Bobrowich and chief financial officer James Mathes remain humble and very guarded about their company’s growth.
For Bobrowich, the former vice president of sales and marketing of Siemens, the memory of telling the Siemens employees that the West Allis plant was going to be shut down is still too fresh in his mind.
"It was very difficult, because I had to make that announcement in February of 1999," Bobrowich said. "In my wildest dreams, I never thought what would happen the next day."
That next day, Bobrowich was besieged with phone calls and faxes from utility executives, pleading with him to "do something" to keep the former Allis-Chalmers plant open somehow.
That’s when former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and West Allis Mayor Jeanette Bell stepped forward to help, ultimately with the loans.
Despite the growth and the success, this is no time for ReGENco to become complacent, Bobrowich said.
"I think we’re in a good situation, but you have to keep your customers satisfied," he said. "It’s very easy to become complacent, but we can’t become complacent, because then there will be more competitors, and we’d just go out of business.
"In our business, because we don’t have a client base of millions, we have to do it right every time," Bobrowich said.
ReGENco is negotiating with another customer that could help the company add 20 to 30 more employees and 20,000 more square feet of workspace in the mammoth West Allis plant on Washington Street, Mathes said.
The company also is adding the servicing and repairing of hydroelectric turbine generators to its resume.
Meanwhile, ReGENco is closely monitoring the fate of We Energies’ Power The Future program, which proposes expanding a coal-fired energy plant in Oak Creek and a natural gas-fired plant in Port Washington.
We Energies is awaiting state and local approval to proceed with those expansions to meet the region’s ever-growing demand for electricity.
"The (electrical) load growth is continuing in our state," Bobrowich said. "It’s not a luxury. It’s an absolute necessity."
In the meantime, ReGENco will continue to manufacture parts to keep Wisconsin’s electrical generating infrastructure on line.
The company also is keeping an eye to the future for its workforce, as many of its employees have more than 20 years in specialized jobs.
ReGENco is partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Lynde & Harry Bradley Technology & Trade School, which will open in November, to keep a pipeline of trained workers in the market.
Considering this year is the 100th anniversary of the construction of the former Allis Chalmers plant, its high ceilings have served ReGENco quite well. ReGENco has invested $1.6 million in improvements at the plant, which is owned by Whitnall Summit, a West Allis-based real estate company.
"This is a very significant year for us, to carry the legacy forward," Bobrowich said. "It would have been dead if we had not saved this business in Wisconsin."
Oct. 11, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
