HUSCO Announces It Has Added 500 New Jobs

HUSCO announces that it has added approximately 500 jobs since the trough of the recession in 2009. 55% of the jobs that have been added are in North America and over 200 jobs have been added at HUSCO’s Southeastern Wisconsin facilities in Waukesha and Whitewater. HUSCO currently employs over 1,100 associates globally. 

The growth in employment is due to a substantial recovery of the worldwide construction, material handling, forestry, agricultural, and automotive markets coupled with increased market share in virtually each sector in which HUSCO operates. Revenue in 2010 increased over 60% compared to 2009 and sales are anticipated to increase an additional 40% to 50% in 2011. HUSCO sales in Q1 2011 increased 70% versus Q1 of 2010 which was a spectacular performance according to HUSCO’s Chairman, Agustin A. Ramirez. HUSCO’s recovery from the recession, which commenced in Q2 of 2010 for HUSCO, is expected to produce record financial performance in 2011. Additionally, HUSCO anticipates growth rates of over 20% per year during the next several years leading to a doubling of the business by 2013 compared to 2010.

The growth has allowed HUSCO to provide opportunities for virtually all factory workers laid off, and also has allowed HUSCO to restore all salary, benefits and profit sharing for office employees. Ramirez says, “Our workforce worldwide demonstrated extreme loyalty during the recession, and we lost very few key employees despite temporary deep cuts in total wages and benefits. We are extremely fortunate to have this pain behind us without damage to any strategic initiatives or organizational capabilities. Additionally, the leaner organization we have today has increased our level of competitiveness.”

HUSCO is a global developer and manufacturer of highly engineered hydraulic and electro-hydraulic controls for the off-highway and on-highway equipment markets with facilities in North America (Waukesha, Whitewater and Maquoketa, IA), Europe (UK), India (Pune) and China (Shanghai). HUSCO also has service, warehousing and sales facilities in Brazil. HUSCO differentiates itself in the global market place by its ability to engineer energy saving, custom-designed, hydraulic and electro-hydraulic control products exceptionally fast and is able to manufacture these products globally and cost-effectively. To execute this strategy, HUSCO employs an engineering staff of over 300 associates worldwide.

According to Austin Ramirez, HUSCO’s new CEO, HUSCO’s growth in the automotive market has been driven by its ability to expand market share in existing applications such as cam phasing and cylinder deactivation while simultaneously developing a wide range of new automotive products aimed at improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions. These new applications include controls for variable oil pumps, turbo chargers, and piston cooling jets, plus a number of new transmission-related applications including controls for auto-manual, dual clutch, and continuously variable transmissions. These and other applications will increase the revenue of HUSCO’s automotive business from $23 million in 2009 to over $100 million of sales by 2012. HUSCO expects its automotive business to exceed $200 million in sales by 2015. Ramirez says, “Our highly cost effective global manufacturing facilities and supply base have allowed us to pursue applications outside North America with high quality products that can be produced at globally competitive prices. Our China facility serves the Japanese, European and Chinese markets while operations in Wisconsin supply North American and European markets.”  HUSCO participates in many of the new technologies being developed by automotive manufacturers to increase the energy efficiency of new vehicles.