Wisconsin Manufacturing 2025 Report: Insights on Growth Priorities
Advanced manufacturing is one of the key industries in the state of Wisconsin, ranking in the top 10 in the country. Earlier this week, WCMP held the first readout events for their 2025 Wisconsin Manufacturing Report, and I wanted to share some of their results as well as some quick follow up thoughts.
The Big Takeaways
The report highlights five main themes shaping Wisconsin manufacturers’ growth strategies (shown below). At Valency Fund, we’re particularly interested in how companies are pursuing growth - and how they are funding it - so we took a closer look at #4: Sale Away.
Five themes shaping Wisconsin manufacturers’ growth strategies
WCMP provides the survey questions and results going back to 2021 (shown below). The potential drivers of growth span both the top line (revenue) and bottom line (profit). Not surprisingly, the responses emphasize workforce and productivity—two bottom line factors. On the revenue side, finding new customers and markets remains more popular than developing new products.
Important drivers for company’s future over 5 years
Digging Into the Data
I was then curious whether company characteristics (level of revenue, number of employees, or age) may impact the interest in “Creating New Products”. WCMP makes that data available, and here’s what the 2025 survey suggests.
Revenue Differences: Smaller companies are more focused on product innovation than mid to large firms, though new customers and productivity still rank higher.
Employee Size: Smaller companies see more growth opportunities in increasing productivity, keeping qualified employees, and new products than larger companies. However, those bottom line opportunities are seen as more important.
Company Age: While there isn’t much difference in new product interest between younger and older companies, older companies see much more significance in new markets/customers and increasing productivity as growth drivers.
WICMP 2025 Manufacturing Report chart showing potential growth drivers to revenue, employees, and years in operation
What This Means
These results highlight a consistent theme: Wisconsin manufacturers tend to prioritize new markets and workforce productivity over new product development. For smaller firms, product innovation ranks higher—but even then, it trails other growth drivers.
Looking Ahead
We’re working on some additional projects about how scalable, small to mid size companies in Wisconsin think about growth as well as how they fund it. These results provide insights into the priorities of manufacturing companies and where to look for additional information on capital availability.
We’re eager to partner with Wisconsin companies who are exploring new growth strategies as well as the investors who can make that happen. Get in touch with us at Valency Fund to continue the conversation.