WED AM News: Wisconsin exporters share insights on reaching foreign markets; Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics opens new Madison facility

May 20, 2026

— Successful exporting often takes a nuanced understanding of the local culture along with market-specific product customization, according to Wisconsin company leaders whose products are sold worldwide.

They spoke yesterday during Wisconsin World Trade Day in Pewaukee, offering insights from their experiences with global markets — both successes and failures.

Gautam Malik is CEO of Gamber-Johnson in Stevens Point, which makes mounts for computers, tablets and radios used in vehicles and heavy machinery as well as other settings such as warehouses.

The company has been exporting its products since 2013, Malik said yesterday. Since that time, the business has grown from 62 employees to more than 500 around the world with $200 million in sales and products going to 56 countries.

“Our motto is, we’re going to conquer the world three countries at a time,” he said.

While he emphasized the impact and growth resulting from exporting globally, he also noted the challenges facing companies choosing this path.

After trying to capture Brazil as an export destination more than a decade ago with little success, Gamber-Johnson later exited that market, “saying ‘hey, we’ll never be able to crack that,’” Malik said.

“The biggest challenge that we had in Brazil at that time was, if you’re not assembling the product over there, you didn’t have a chance … regardless of how good the product was,” he said.

Both Malik and Kashyap Malkan, CEO of Brookfield medical device firm Advasaf, yesterday emphasized the cultural element of exporting. Malkan said once companies have met the precise regulatory requirements for a given country, “you’ve got to do your handshakes” to build local connections and often find distributors.

“Yes, their cultural norms are a big deal,” he said. “You kind of have to play by their timetable, not your timetable.”

Mike Sekula, vice president of global supply chain for Inpro Corporation in Muskego, agreed that “relationships are extremely important” to establish trust with business partners elsewhere in the world. The company, which manufactures building products like window treatments and signs, has been exporting since the mid-1990s.

In addition to cultural expectations on the supply and distribution side, panelists yesterday noted the importance of understanding consumer expectations in other countries.

Susan Kortendick, senior manager of international sales operations for pet food maker Stella & Chewy’s in Oak Creek, said these expectations can often go well beyond what’s spelled out in official regulations. The company began exporting in 2016 and its products now reach seven countries, including Canada and destinations in Asia.

“If you don’t know what your consumer wants, sometimes they have higher expectations than the government,” she said. “For us, there’s ingredients that are allowed in certain markets but consumers don’t want them in there. You won’t get that from reading those documents, so you really need to have a partner in there, to make sure you know your product is ready for the market.”

Meanwhile, Malkan said meeting consumer expectations can mean custom local language labelling, tailored instructions for use and training resources, noting “that’s huge” for reaching certain markets with medical devices.

“You could have a miracle drug out there, or a miracle product, but if they don’t know how to use it, or they don’t know how to install it, I think those are some of those customizations that you have to build on top of your product,” he said.

The event was hosted by the Madison International Trade Association, the Wisconsin District Export Council and Wisconsin International Credit Executives.

— Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics has opened a new stem cell manufacturing facility in Madison, expanding its production capacity to meet rising demand.

Gov. Tony Evers yesterday heralded the company as “a true Wisconsin success story,” noting its origins as an effort of James Thompson, a UW-Madison biologist who’s known for breakthroughs in the field of stem cell research. Thompson founded the company as Cellular Dynamics International, and it was later acquired by the Japanese company Fujifilm Holdings Corporation.

“Thanks to his pioneering research, collaboration between our state’s public and private sectors, today we celebrate our state’s leadership in the fields of biohealth and biotechnology,” Evers said.

Tomoyuki Hasegawa, president and CEO of Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics, yesterday said the new space “deepens our ties with Madison” and touted the support provided by the state’s biohealth ecosystem. Hasegawa holds a board position in the Japan-America Society of Wisconsin.

“Since Cellular Dynamics joined Fujifilm group, the team has accelerated innovation with great effort on science and technologies,” he said. “Collaboration between Wisconsin and Japan has been fantastic.”

The facility is expected to quadruple capacity for research products and services manufacturing, according to details provided by the guv’s office. The new 175,000-square-foot building is part of the company’s $200 million initiative on cell therapy manufacturing in both Madison and California, announced in late 2023. It includes cell culture manufacturing and process development labs as well as a center of excellence for gene editing.

“The work that our Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics team is doing in Madison is incredible,” Hasegawa said. “From a standard blood draw, we have the capability to develop stem cells into virtually any types of cells in [the] human body.”

See the release.

— Wisconsin is among the states filing suit against the U.S. Education Department for limiting how much most prospective healthcare workers can borrow.

Federal loans for graduate students studying to be nurses, physician assistants and a broad swath of other health professionals will be significantly curtailed under a rule set to go into effect in July.

Attorneys general in 25 states and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear filed the lawsuit in a Maryland district court yesterday.

“We should be supporting the development of the health-care workforce,” AG Josh Kaul said in a statement. “But this rule would make it harder for some to be able to pay for certain degree programs, including those for nurse practitioners and physician assistants.”

The Education Department and Education Secretary Linda McMahon – who addressed this weekend’s state GOP convention in Baraboo – are named as defendants.

The same group of state officials, plus Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, sent a comment letter opposing the proposed rule to the Education Department and McMahon in March.

Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act restricted the amount graduate students could borrow to $20,500 per year or $100,000 total, beginning in July.

Students pursuing “professional degrees” can borrow up to $50,000 per year or $200,000. But the Education Department in January proposed a rule that said that definition applied to just 10 fields given by Congress as examples, plus clinical psychology.

The federal department finalized the rule on May 1.

The plaintiffs argue the rule “arbitrarily narrows the definition of ‘professional degrees’ by relying on factors that Congress did not intend it to consider” and will harm states by reducing funding for higher education and impeding states from meeting critical workforce needs.

The states are asking for the Education Department to be permanently blocked from implementing the rule.

— State officials are providing $60 million in new funding for broadband expansion efforts in Wisconsin, seeking to “close gaps” not being met by existing federal programs funding high-speed internet development.

The state’s final proposal for the federally funded Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment was approved in December, providing more than $1 billion in funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The state Public Service Commission is administering the BEAD program, and expects construction to start this summer.

But after that work is completed, the Wisconsin Broadband Office estimates at least 30,000 locations in the state would remain unserved.

To fill those gaps, the governor’s office says this latest grant round uses “underspent and returned” funds from prior broadband grant funding rounds and funding from the Universal Service Fund. The PSC is now accepting applications for broadband projects under the grant funding round.

See more details in the release.

Judge halts some work on Enbridge Line 5 pipeline reroute

Odana Hills redesign could sideline golfers in 2027, clubhouse marked for demolition

TOPICS

AGRIBUSINESS

– Dairy Innovation Hub highlights dairy research growth

– CSA boxes get people buying fresh from farms, but will customer convenience hurt the mission?

– Farmers look at new ways to cut costs as turning a profit gets harder

CONSTRUCTION

– Port Washington weighs luxury townhome proposal

– 212-unit apartment pitched for next phase of Kenosha Harbor District project

EDUCATION