ELYRIA, Ohio (July 9, 2019)—Invacare Corporation (Invacare) is pleased to provide an update on its enhanced transformation and growth plan in three key areas: commercial effectiveness, product innovation, and simplifying business and an optimizing cost.
Commercial Effectiveness
Invacare announced changes to its North America sales organization, effective immediately.
Joost Beltman has been appointed Vice President—Sales and Marketing, North America. Since joining Invacare in 2008 as Country Manager for the Netherlands, Beltman has held roles of increasing responsibility, most recently serving as Managing Director, Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) and Italy regions. Additionally, he served on Invacare’s EMEA Innovation Council, representing the commercial and customer side of the business.
Keith Brantly has been appointed Director, CRT Sales. Brantly re-joins Invacare from Amoena USA, where he served as Vice President of Sales. From 2016 to 2018, he served as a National Accounts Director and Regional Sales Director at Invacare, and prior to that, he held a sales leadership position at Arjo, Inc.
Product Innovation
As part of its strategy to deliver profitable sales growth, Invacare announced the launch of several products. Under the Küschall brand, the company has designed a new line of active manual wheelchairs with sleek and minimal design elements intended to enhance the user’s daily life and activities. In addition, the company recently launched SMOOV one, an innovative power add-on which provides flexible electric drive for active manual wheelchair users. Both products are currently available in Europe and the company intends to seek clearance for distribution in other regions.
Learn more about these products at kuschall.com and smoov.com.
Simplifying Business & Optimizing Cost
As part of its transformation actions, the company continues to identify opportunities to simplify how it conducts business and lower cost. Realigning the organization to reduce complexity led to a workforce reduction of approximately 75 associates in North America and Europe. The company expects to incur total pre-tax cash restructuring charges, primarily relating to severance and transition assistance, of approximately $0.6 million during the second quarter of 2019 and $2.5 million during the third quarter of 2019. Once this reduction in workforce is completed, the company expects that it will generate approximately $6.4 million in annualized pre-tax savings, with $3.3 million in Europe and the remainder in North America.
Executive Summary
Reflecting on these initiatives, Matthew E. Monaghan, chairman, president and chief executive officer commented, “We continue to make progress against our enhanced transformation and growth plan, and I am confident that these announcements, in conjunction with our ongoing strategic changes, will position Invacare for long-term success.
"First, I would like to congratulate Joost and Keith on their new roles. These are exciting key roles for us to have filled with strong talent. Joost’s proven success in Europe will help us execute a clear vision for profitable sales growth in North America as we navigate the ever-changing health care market. He will be instrumental in integrating the North America resources to drive overall commercial success. Keith’s understanding of the clinical sales process and collaborative customer relationships will continue to expand Invacare’s legacy of innovation and expertise in the complex rehabilitation space. This is a core area for the company with strong products and clinical benefits. Keith’s focus will help us regain share and better align with customer success.
"Second, I am pleased to introduce exciting new products to the market, which capitalize on our history of innovation and deliver high clinical value. We have an incredibly full pipeline of new products on the horizon, which will help us achieve our long-term financial goals.
"Finally, while decisions that affect our workforce are never easy, it is important that we make long-term focused decisions and take actions that streamline our business to delight our customers and optimize our cost structure. Actions like these will enable us to successfully execute our transformation strategy and increase shareholder value.”
Visit invacare.com for more information.
