FRI AM News: Harken sails to international prominence; Weinbrenner Shoe Company President Jeff Burns featured on ‘WisBusiness: the Podcast’

October 16, 2026

From WisBusiness.com …

— Sailing pioneer Peter Harken never saw a sailboat or piece of hardware he didn’t think he could improve.

“Peter has always looked at the world differently, forever trying to figure out how to fix stuff and make it better,” said Bill Goggins, CEO of Harken, Inc.

And Peter’s still doing that,” added Goggins, an avid sailor himself.

The Pewaukee-based sailing gear company was started by Peter and his brother, Olaf, more than 50 years ago in a run-down garage in Waukesha. Today, the signature Wisconsin company with 400 worldwide workers is branching into safety gear.

Olaf died in 2019, five years after he and Peter were inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame for their contributions to the sport.

The pair were lauded for revolutionizing yachting hardware with their lightweight plastic ball-bearing blocks, the nautical term for pulleys.

They were also praised for manufacturing high-performance winches and other equipment for boats – including those on scores of Wisconsin lakes – as well as for dinghies, Olympic-class sailboats and America’s Cup yachts, which can cost $10 million and more. On some of those high-end boats, you might find the Harken 70 Hydraulic 3-speech Performa winch, which retails for roughly $15,255.

“Olaf and his brother Peter revolutionized the sport of sailing with their innovative deck hardware,” Professional Boatbuilder Magazine editorialized after Olaf died.

Peter Stark, co-president of the National Sailing Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, called the Harken brothers “trailblazers on and off the water; not only as sailors, but as engineers.”

Stark said the brothers developed a well-earned reputation for innovation and vision.

“Their equipment is some of the best anywhere. And they’re beloved throughout the sailing community for their expertise, their humor and their generosity to the sport,” he said.

Read the full story here.

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Jeff Burns, president of Weinbrenner Shoe Company.

The business, which was established in Wisconsin in 1892, manufactures workboots and other footwear under the Thorogood brand. It makes boots for electricians, plumbers or construction workers, as well as law enforcement and firemen.

“The primary focus is tradesmen and women, that’s really the core of our business … what you would consider skilled trade work, that’s really the backbone and the focus of our brand,” Burns said.

It’s had a factory in Marshfield since 1935, but needed a more modern space to meet growing demand, Burns said. Earlier this year, the company opened a new $14.5 million, 70,000-square-foot manufacturing site to replace the older facility in Marshfield. The company’s headquarters is in Merrill, where it also has manufacturing facilities.

“It’s allowed us to put a linear line, and you can watch the product go from point A to point B to point C … very efficient, and high ceilings, 26-foot ceilings,” Burns said. “It’s very open, very clean, all LED lighting. So it’s just a much better environment for our employees.”

The business employs about 120 people and plans to invest and hire more going forward, even while working to automate some aspects of its manufacturing processes such as sewing.

“When you say the word automation, the first thing that comes to some people’s minds is, you’re going to cut your workforce. That’s not the intent,” he said. “The intent is to take our workforce and allow them to work smarter and make more product with the same amount of people.”

Meanwhile, Burns discusses the company’s exposure to tariffs, though most of its components are made domestically.

“We do import some products; it’s very difficult in the United States to do rubber footwear, I mean you just don’t find rubber footwear being made in the United States,” he said. “We make rubber fireboots, and we source that from overseas so that’s an imported item that got affected by tariffs.”

Listen to the podcast here and see the full list of WisBusiness podcasts.

— A new report from the Evers administration shows the state finished the 2025-26 fiscal year with $349.1 million more in the general fund than expected as state revenue and expenses both came in higher than what had been budgeted.

Meanwhile, state government is off to a good start for tax collections in the 2026-27 fiscal year.

The Department of Administration yesterday released the annual fiscal report that closes the books on 2026-27. With the bigger ending balance than what had been budgeted, the state is on track to finish the current two-year budget June 30 with a surplus in the ballpark of $2.8 billion.

DOA will provide an updated look at the state’s projected closing balance next month in a report that will also include a first look at expected revenues for 2027-29.

Yesterday’s report also showed the state now has nearly $2.1 billion in its rainy day fund.

Gov. Tony Evers hailed the annual fiscal report as “damn good news, Wisconsin.”

The administration had already released data on tax collections, showing they came in $450.8 million higher than what had been expected. Yersterday’s report also noted the state started the fiscal year with $143.7 million more than it had expected, departmental revenues came in slightly below expectations, and appropriations were $244.5 million above what had been expected.

The net impact was the general fund finishing the year with $349.1 million more than what was budgeted.

Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said the final numbers were what he expected and expressed disappointment that the Legislature didn’t sign off on a $1.8 billion surplus package GOP legislative leaders negotiated with Evers in May. That package included tax rebates, additional money for schools, and a tax exemption for tips and overtime.

“Our families and taxpayers need the relief now,” said Marklein, one of Dems’ top targets this fall.

— Yesterday’s report release comes on the heels of the Department of Revenue reporting tax showing collections for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026-27 are off to a hotter start than expected.

In January, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau had projected that state tax collections would grow by 1.4% in 2025-26 and then an additional 2.5% in 2026-27.

Yesterday’s report shows tax collections came in 3.4% for 2025-26.

Meanwhile, DOR reported on Tuesday that general purpose revenue collections were up 9.2% for the first three months of 2026-27 compared to the same period a year before. That was driven by a spike in corporate tax collections.

Those were up 42.7%, though the Department of Revenue noted it was due to several unexpectedly large estimated payments. The agency noted corporate collections are “sensitive to large swings in activity” and future “collections may be impacted either way.”

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