OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — A new study shows business is booming in the Sawdust City, and the findings might just indicate the economic future of the Fox Valley as a whole.
- Oshkosh Chamber surveyed its member businesses to gauge how 2023 went for them.
- The results will be used to predict how 2024 and beyond will be for various factors of the city's economy.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
The Oshkosh Chamber is one of the leading voices on the state of the city with the goal of sustainable growth.
Looking back on 2023, Chamber President & CEO Rob Kleman says it was a good year.
“Our business outlook survey is an annual survey that we do and so we look back on 2023 and then kind of project how how business economy gonna be doing in 2024 from employer perspective and our CEO's and business owners all respond to this.”
From the city's business outlook survey, Kleman also reports that more than half of local businesses saw sales growth in 2023. And, a majority saw increased profits and wages. Kleman says the survey is important to keep tabs on progress.
“You know I’ve been here 33 years," Kleman laughed. "We‘ve been doing it since then so you know I took a very long time so we do like to track you know historical numbers.”"
He also says this is bigger than Oshkosh.
“Our region is, you know, the Fox River Valley, Northeast Wisconsin, the 'New North'…we’re kind of one happy family so what’s good for Appleton is good for Oshkosh and vice versa.”
I also wanted to hear from a business how things went last year. So, I popped over to fox river brewing co, where manager Nick Brown lauded their performance from the 2023 fiscal year.
“We had one of our biggest years to date in the 25 years that we’ve been open at the end of 2023. That is credited to a lot of things here in the building. It means that we can come up with new ideas of things to try as far as features go, and it allows us to upgrade the facilities.”
The Oshkosh Chamber is always accepting new members. So if you’re a business owner looking to expand your network, look up oshkoshchamber.com.
