A new Snug Seat

MATTHEWS, N.C. - After more than 25 years specializing in pediatric products, Snug Seat now distributes a wide range of adult products.

This spring, the company is taking over sales in North America for Sweden-based Etac (hygiene products, aids to daily living and wheelchairs) and two Etac-owned companies, Norway-based Molift (patient lifting products) and Denmark-based Immedia (patient transfer products).

“I've always thought it would be a great benefit for the company to offer adult products,” said Kirk MacKenize, president of Snug Seat, which also came under Etac's roof in late 2011. “Our products take children up to 14 years old and when they outgrow them, we get calls asking us, 'What next,' and we had nothing to provide them. We have this great customer base that likes our products and they want to continue to use them.”

This will be the U.S. debut for many of the Etac products. Previously, a small number of products were sold by Chicago-based P2B, Inc., but mostly only to large retailers like Walgreens.

Snug Seat has hired two managers to sell the products to the HME and long-term care markets, and has beefed up its service team. The company has also leased a building near its headquarters to house operations and an education center, MacKenzie says.

“We just had our first training school for Molift products and that's the type of thing we hope to do more of,” he said. “We've been a small company until now, so we haven't been able to do those sorts of things.”

In addition to more standard products reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid, Snug Seat now offers alternatives, MacKenzie says. Immedia, in particular, offers cash products like special sheets, glide boards and swivel cushions that ease patient transfers.

“These are products that our providers can make a good margin on, and they're not covered by Medicare or Medicaid,” he said.

Now that it offers both pediatric and adult products, MacKenzie says Snug Seat will have more to offer its HME provider customers—and not just in terms of the breadth of products they have to choose from.

“The more a provider buys from us, the higher discount they get,” he said. “So if there's a provider with 25% of their business in pediatrics and 75% in adults, if they buy adult products from us now, too, they'll get better pricing on both.”