ATLANTA – After exhibiting at Medtrade in Atlanta last October, Canada-based Broda is looking to change its business model—opting to expand its dealer network to compliment an already solid distributor base.
These days, the company’s chairs are typically purchased and put into rental fleets for hospices or skilled nursing facilities. “We tend to focus on wheelchairs suitable for the rental market,” says Sue Wilson, vice president, Customer Care, Kitchener, Ontario. “That’s a new and growing business opportunity for a lot of HME providers. We have a huge presence in the United States for hospice rental with our product.”
Along with Tricia Boudreau, marketing manager, and Zana Radic, team lead, Inside Sales (pictured above), Wilson met with providers at Medtrade in an effort to continue the company’s considerable momentum. “Medtrade was a great opportunity for us to meet with potential customers from all over the United States and North America,” says Wilson. “There are a large number of rental DME companies with standard wheelchairs and beds. Broda is an additional product, and an additional revenue stream, that they can add to their line.”
The comfortable Broda chairs are well suited to palliative care, where Wilson says it is “more about the caring and not the curing.” One such case involved “Bill,” the executive director of the Canadian Assistive Devices Association and his mother (pictured, left). “Mrs. Laidlaw passed away in early 2014,” says Wilson, “but Bill was so grateful that her BRODA chair gave her comfort for the last two years of her life.”
Broda has signed up for Medtrade Spring, scheduled next year for March 30-April 1. “We were at the Las Vegas show last year,” enthuses Wilson. “From a regional perspective, we are quite interested in meeting with customers all across North America. I’ve heard that Las Vegas may attract more of the west coast group, and we look forward to meeting with those providers.”