Belleville company ROHO poised for growth

ROHO sells its unique dry flotation wheelchair cushions to customers in more than 70 countries. Every one of those cushions is made in a factory on South 74th Street in Belleville.

A past recipient of a national exporting excellence award and once named the mid-sized Illinois Exporter of the Year, the company last year was acquired by the Swedish power wheelchair manufacturer Permobil after more than 40 years under the ownership of the Graebe family of Belleville.

ROHO currently employs around 220 people. Not bad for a company founded by an electrical engineer who tinkered with cushion designs in his spare time at home in the 1960s.

Tom Borcherding, who’s been president of ROHO for seven years, said there’s room to expand at the company’s Belleville plant, and demand for the best wheelchair seat cushions on the planet will keep growing.

Q: What’s ROHO’s history in Belleville?

A: “ROHO was privately held by the Graebe family from Belleville from day one. Robert Graebe Sr. was the inventor of what’s called dry flotation, which is the embodiment of the ROHO cushion. He invented that in the 1960s. He was confident enough that this was solving a really critical need that he ultimately left his job as an electronic engineer at McDonnell Douglas and started ROHO in 1973. He started literally making a few cushions a day, proving that ROHO cushions worked and would benefit those who are going through the rehab process. There was a genuine need that this product was filling. It was solving health challenges and pressure ulcer challenges for people seated in wheelchairs. From those early days selling cushions one at a time, ROHO exports to over 70 (international) markets. It’s the number one brand in wheelchair seating by a long shot. The proof is that at any time, over a million people are seated in a ROHO product around the world. Those are all coming from here in Belleville.”

Q: Why did it make sense for Permobil to acquire ROHO?

A. “Permobil and ROHO are related companies. Permobil is making the leading power wheelchair on the planet, and ROHO is making the leading wheelchair seating system on the planet. We typically would sell through the same channels, have the same end users, they go through the same prescriptive process. So in our industry you’re seeing consolidation. You’re seeing manufacturers of wheelchairs and wheelchair seating and other related products starting to consolidate so they can capitalize on synergies in global distribution, global logistics, global sourcing, global branding. The market for this business is truly a global market. The significant majority of our business is export business, and Permobil placed a really high value on the fact that our products reach over 70 markets around the world.”

Q: Recent history has shown manufacturing output and jobs in the United States has declined significantly, but ROHO bucks that trend with its Belleville operation. What’s the secret?

A: “I think there’s a number of things. Permobil has its main factory in Timra, Sweden, which is a small town. They also manufacture in a small town. They’re not manufacturing in Third World markets and neither are we, and that is because the main stamp of our brand is quality and consistency. We would not get the quality and consistency and reliability and promise of our brand if we moved our manufacturing to Mexico or China or Cambodia. We believe in made in the U.S.A., made in Belleville. We market our brand worldwide around ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ The labor force here is excellent, very committed to quality. We all believe that the product we make is so important to the people who use it that our product gets a great amount of care every step in the process. This is going to be used by somebody who needs it for maintaining their health and their independence in life.”

Q: The health care industry’s growth is bound to last for decades. Do you feel that at ROHO? Is business good?

A: “Business is good. It’s pressured by healthcare economics. I think most people in the health care arena would have pressure under health care economics. Almost every government is trying to reduce healthcare expenditures. So we’re right in there along with hospitals and doctors and all types of equipment. Everyone is feeling that pressure. But the flip side of that is the aging population. As more and more people move from Baby Boomers to the elderly, the aging population will have mobility and independence needs. That population is going to continue to be a boom for our business. The demand will grow. We just have to do things smarter to address healthcare economics.”

Q: ROHO’s obviously done something right. Who do you credit?

A: “From the Belleville perspective, I want to give credit to the Graebe family. They are well-known in the Belleville community as the owners of ROHO for well over 40 years. They made a commitment to this company when there were no profits, when there was no demand, when it was a totally unknown technology. They made the commitment to invest in it and see it grow from 1973 to what you see in the operation today, reaching over 70 countries around the world. In 40 years, that’s a pretty phenomenal story of a privately-owned, family-owned business in Belleville. In our industry I can’t think of another family business that had the level of success that ROHO did under family ownership.”

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 8:12 AM with the headline "Belleville company ROHO poised for growth."