Below is an excerpt from the most recent edition of WisBusiness Tuesday Trends.
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RISING
Quad/Graphics: The Sussex-based printing giant announces a pair of large deals, beginning with an agreement to extend and expand an existing deal to print Time Inc. magazines. Under the new $900 million deal, which would begin in 2014, Quad would handle more than 85 percent of the print work for 19 magazine titles, among them Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune. The agreement represents a 35 percent increase in the company’s incremental volume over the term of the multi-year agreement. Quad also announces a $258.5 million deal to acquire marketing communications company Vertis Holdings Inc. Baltimore-based Vertis will voluntarily file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief to facilitate the sale, which Quad/Graphics officials say will enhance the company’s position as a leader in retail advertising and direct marketing.
MIXED
Energy: A new report says Wisconsin should be taking advantage of its prosperous agriculture and food processing sectors to become a national leader in bioenergy production. The study, completed by the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative, said the state has 4.77 million dry tons of dairy cow manure alone per year — enough to replace the energy output of a large-scale coal plant and a way to offset some of the nearly $19 billion used to import energy to the state. But in the short term, energy costs will increase, according to We Energies. The utility says its customers should anticipate paying roughly 9 percent more to heat their homes this winter, based on projections of natural gas prices during normal winter weather. But We Energies says that increase is largely due to a steep drop in costs last winter stemming from record high temperatures; overall, the anticipated costs are still less than most winters over the past decade.
FALLING
Lunda Construction: The construction company based in Black River Falls has been fined the maximum of $21,000 by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration for three violations found in the investigation of the April death of a construction worker on repairs of U.S. Highway 41 in Brown County. The administration cited training, supervision and procedural safety violations as officials said the accident could have been prevented. OSHA has inspected Lunda 14 previous times and recorded seven previous citations since 2007. A second investigation surrounding a death on the Highway 41 project is also pending; a Green Bay truck driver was killed in July when crane boom operated by a Lunda employee struck him.
