Governor's Export Achievement Award Winners 

Each year, the governor recognizes firms and organizations that have achieved extraordinary results in international sales or have contributed to Wisconsin’s increased ability to compete in a global market. Criteria include degree of export-related growth; innovative techniques and approaches that resulted in the company’s success; and demonstration of extra effort in capturing worldwide markets.

This year’s award winners include:

Small Agricultural Exporter - Main Street Ingredients, LLC - La Crosse
Main Street Ingredients produces ingredients for the ice cream, cheese, bakery, and confectionary industry, as well as private label retail products for the healthy living and sports nutrition categories. Main Street Ingredients sells products in over 21 countries in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Export sales have increased from $4 million in 2004 to over $25 million in 2007. Export sales of commodity ingredients have also increased by 33 million pounds during the same time period. This growth has resulted in the expansion of the firm’s manufacturing operation in La Crosse from 40,000 square feet less than 10 years ago to 230,000 square feet today.

Large Agricultural Exporter - Foremost Farms USA – Baraboo
Foremost Farms USA is a milk marketing and manufacturing cooperative headquartered in Baraboo, Wisconsin that is owned by 2,700 dairy farmers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. It operates 10 cheese plants, two milk packaging plants, one - butter plant, and four ingredients plants in Wisconsin, plus three operations outside of the state. Last year nearly $17 million worth of Foremost Farms’ butter was shipped to Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Nearly $1 million worth of cheese went to Mexico, Korea, the Netherlands, and the Middle East. Whey ingredients continue to be - an important export, with nearly $79 million being shipped to 41 countries around the world. Over 1,300 of the cooperative’s almost 1,400 employees are in Wisconsin.

Agriculture Export Plus - Sanimax - Green Bay
Every year Sanimax collects more than one million tons of animal and food by-products, vegetable oils, and hides and skins, and converts them into high quality inputs used by feed companies, chemical manufacturers, tanneries, soap producers, the energy industry, and pet food manufacturers. The firm’s activities significantly reduce the amount of material that would otherwise be buried in landfills. Sanimax’s export success has helped grow the company into a $500 million business and spurred a 16 percent increase in employment since 2006.

Small Manufacturing Exporter - Extrusion Dies Industries, LLC - Chippewa Falls
Extrusion Dies Industries, LLC (EDI) produces flat extrusion and coextrusion die systems for a full range of film, sheet, extrusion coating, proximity coating, and strand pelletizing applications. In 2007 that amounted to $18.7 million worth of exports. EDI places a major emphasis on after sales service, including cleaning, re-machining, and polishing existing dies to return them to as-new condition or even improved capabilities. In order to service international customers, EDI maintains 21 global sales agents and has established service centers in Germany and China. A full team of service technicians can be dispatched from Wisconsin and have worked in Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Europe, North Africa, and South America.

Large Manufacturing Exporter - Appleton - Appleton
Appleton is a 100 percent employee-owned company that creates product solutions through its development and use of coating formulations and - applications, microencapsulation technology, and secure and specialized print services. The company produces carbonless, thermal, and security paper and performance packaging products. The 3,100 employee-owners work at facilities in Appleton, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and the United Kingdom. Shortly after joining the firm as CEO, Mark Richards created an international division in 2005. The 26-person division combines sales, marketing, finance, administration, logistics, and customer and technical services. The revenue of the International Division grew by 71 percent from its establishment in 2005 to 2007. Today, Appleton products are sold in over 70 countries.

Manufacturing Export Plus - Rite-Hite Corporation – Milwaukee
Rite-Hite Corporation manufactures loading dock safety systems and industrial door systems. The firm maintains more than 30 different sales representative organizations in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. In addition to production facilities at headquarters in Milwaukee, the firm has manufacturing operations in Florida, Iowa, Tennessee, Colorado, China, Denmark, Latvia, Germany, and Poland. The firm is expanding regional sales offices in Australia, China, and Brazil. Rite-Hite won the Governor’s Export Achievement Award in the Large Industrial/Manufacturing category in 2002. For each of the last three years, Rite-Hite’s international sales have grown by 25 percent or more.

High Tech Exporter - Criticare Systems, Inc. – Waukesha
Criticare Systems, Inc. a subsidiary of Opto Circuits Limited, was founded in 1984 and designs, manufactures, and markets patient monitoring devices and non invasive sensors used in anesthesia, critical care, respiratory care, transport, and outpatient situations. The firm balances technical innovation and cost containment. The firm has 90 employees in Wisconsin, plus an additional 12 elsewhere in the world. The firm’s 10-person international team handles sales, marketing, and service. The firm has 80 distributors outside of the United States handling sales in 65 countries. International sales have been in excess of $11.5 million for each of the last three years. Criticare and the U.S. Department of Commerce have co-hosted several conferences for medical professionals in developing countries. In 2007 Criticare received the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Achievement Award.

Export Assistance Provider - World Dairy Expo, Inc. – Madison
For the last 42 years, the World Dairy Expo has taken place in Madison, and it continues to be the international meeting place for the dairy industry. Every year, 65,000 attendees, including 3,000 registered international attendees from 90 different countries, make the trip to World Dairy Expo to experience the more than 700 exhibiting companies (from 24 different countries) and 2,500 of the best dairy cattle in North America. World Dairy Expo is a showcase of cutting-edge dairy technology and the best dairy genetics available today. The longstanding tradition and wide popularity of World Dairy Expo in Madison confirms that Wisconsin is and will always be America’s Dairyland. Although World Dairy Expo does not engage in direct export, the event facilitates trade and commerce by gathering people from the world’s dairy industry. Having the key players in dairy export in one place allows for countless business deals and contacts to be made. World Dairy Expo offers commercial exhibitors and cattle breeders alike access to a diverse audience from every corner of the world. Coming together for five days in the fall has proven essential to the global dairy industry and dairy export.

-- Stanley Pfrang