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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Whisker Expands Juneau, Wisconsin, Operations

07/20/2022
Whisker, a self-cleaning litter box manufacturer, is expanding its facility in Juneau, Wisconsin. The $10.7 million project is expected to create 150 jobs over the next two years.

The company will be adding an office to its existing, 62,000-square-foot building, which a 2020 renovation nearly doubled in size, while also constructing an adjacent, 150,000-square-foot warehouse facility. This continued expansion is a response to rapidly growing demand for Whisker products and inefficiencies at the current facility.

“Our desire to grow our U.S. operations was already something we were confident in,” said Jacob Zuppke, CEO and president of Whisker. “The incentives from WEDC and the support we got from the community, with regards to our ability to add more land and continue growing in the city we were already in, reassured us that we’re in the right place and that our investment deserves to stay in Juneau.”

WEDC is supporting the project by authorizing up to $450,000 in state income tax credits over the next three years. The actual amount of tax credits Whisker will receive is contingent upon the number of jobs created and the amount of capital investment during that period.

“Whisker’s second facility expansion in the past two years reinforces its standing in the Juneau community and in Wisconsin,” said Missy Hughes, secretary and CEO of Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the state’s lead economic development organization. “This project’s job creation could provide a huge, long-lasting boost to the local economy.”

Delaware-based Whiskers Holdings, Inc. owns Whisker, which is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan and was called Automated Pet Care Products until a summer 2021 rebrand. Whisker’s signature product is the Litter-Robot, a self-cleaning litter box designed by founder and cat-owner Brad Baxter. The company’s American-made products are distributed worldwide.

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