Invacare Closes Kuschall in North America
Invacare Corp. announced plans to consolidate its custom manual product offering into one business last week, officially closing the Kuschall portion of its North American business. Kuschall operations in Europe will continue unaffected.
"The success of the Invacare ProSPIN X4 and Crossfire T6 custom manual wheelchairs allows Invacare to reduce the complexity of its custom manual wheelchair line by taking a formulary product approach in North America," said Brian Ellacott, group vice president, Helixx Group, in a news release. "Both the ProSPIN X4 and Crossfire T6 are manufactured in the United States, so customers will benefit from shorter lead times. That makes these products more cost-effective for North American customers, which gives them a competitive advantage in this new reimbursement environment."
New orders for Kuschall wheelchairs were accepted until Dec. 29, 2006. All quotes up to that point were to be honored through Feb. 28, 2007. Kuschall parts will continue to be available by calling customer service at (800) 331-8551. In addition, Invacare is exploring distribution through specialty distributors in North America.
The Helixx Group is an umbrella organization for Invacare's specialty rehab product lines and brands, including Freedom Designs, Altimate Medical, Küschall North America, Motion Concepts and PinDot.
This article originally appeared in the November 2006 issue of HME Business.