Another Way to Grow

Franchising continues to grow in the fast food, fitness and shipping industries. Can it work in home medical equipment? You bet, says Ric Wren, president of Middletown, Ohio-based WrenCare.

People interested in the HME market may be hesitant about entering this industry — they either can't or don't want to do it alone — and that is why franchising can be a safe alternative, says Wren.

“With all the changes that are taking place in legislation and so forth, I think they really need somebody to partner with to go through this,” he explains.

Wren's decision to build an HME franchise operation came after WrenCare, the company he and his wife, Carla, created in 1999, began looking for new opportunities to expand their business. The path that led WrenCare from a single location to branch locations to offering franchises has been direct — and deliberate.

Getting Started

Both of the Wrens' backgrounds are in the HME industry. He worked for a large HME provider for 22 years — as everything from a driver and delivery technician to running five locations as a regional branch manager. She worked for several HME providers selling equipment and respiratory services. They wanted to own their own company, so they recruited partners and created a business plan that would ensure their success.

“We envisioned that we were going to have a large company over many years, so we wanted to put together the right team,” says Wren. “I tried to find people that I could get along with and I could trust. Trust was a big issue, because I had heard so many horror stories about people getting into business, getting the wrong partners and putting the wrong team together.”

The first person the Wrens approached was Ron Ferguson, a pharmacist who was in the home infusion business at the time. Ferguson and another pharmacist, Jerry Fitzgerald, became the Wrens' partners, and WrenCare was born.

From the beginning, the partners set about creating a model that could grow quickly and easily. They located corporate headquarters in Middletown with a centralized customer service department and a purchasing warehouse. They chose to house the accounts receivable department in Fort Laramie, Ohio, where Wren knew a core group of people who were experienced in HME and respiratory billing practices. Then they started to work developing the Middletown location and began opening branches. The decision to franchise came after the additional locations were opened.