Roscoe listens to customers: Company expands mobility line

STRONGVILLE, Ohio - Roscoe Medical took seven months of market experience to heart and hit the ground running this spring with an expanded and improved line of manual mobility products, say company officials. "With a new product line, you don't always know what you need right out of the gate," said Jesse Keirn, vice president of market development. "We had some suspicion initially that we needed more variety, but we took the approach of let's let the market dictate that." Customer feedback resulted in a variety of "tweaking and fine-tuning" of existing products, and the addition of four new wheelchairs--two transport chairs and two new versions of its existing K0001/K0002 chair. Roscoe also carries two lightweight manual chairs (K0003 and K0004) and a bariatric chair (K007); deluxe and standard rollators; canes and quad canes. "We found our initial offering great for a lot of customers, but others wanted more choice, whether it be the style of the frame of a wheelchair or color, which was a big thing particularly on rollators and also on transport chairs," Keirn said. The company's K-code chairs all come in standard chrome. The new lightweight aluminum transport chairs come in blue and burgundy. Rollators now come in slate gray and a stone look, as well as blue and maroon. Additionally, Roscoe increased the weight capacity of all of its wheelchairs from 250 to 300 pounds. Until the mobility line debuted last fall, Roscoe was known primarily as a distributor of respiratory parts and accessories. Its customers bought mobility products--but from other vendors. With the new offerings, the company expects to pick up a lot of new business. Sales of existing mobility products have increased 50% each month since the launch. That kind of growth is easier to attain with a new line, where there's no place to go but up, Keirn acknowledged, but 'it's still a good sign for the long-term viability of the line so we feel good about that." The move into mobility brings the company a step closer toward becoming a one-stop shop for providers. To help providers rely less on Medicare reimbursement, Roscoe will introduce a line of bath safety products this fall, Keirn said. "We're going to keep adding every year," Keirn said.