Ottobock Announces Office Relocations

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Apr 09, 2014

Ottobock has announced facility relocations for its North American logistics and distribution operations, as well as its fabrications and after-sales service operations.

Logistics and distribution operations will be moving to Louisville, Ky., from current headquarters in Minneapolis and Toronto.

In a news release about the move, Ottobock said moving to Louisville "is part of an expanded investment by Ottobock in the U.S. and North America that includes the goal to triple its business by the year 2020. As the company looked to the future, it sought locations that would help best serve its customers in the decades to come, with Louisville standing out as a strategic shipping hub."

The transition to Louisville was underway in mid March, Ottobock added. The company said "limited" receiving, stocking and shipping of the manufacturer's mobility products had started, that the warehouse was being prepared for additional inventory, and that Ottobock had started hiring employees.

"Louisville has a strong reputation of shipping expertise, and we believe the creation of a regional distribution center there will build efficiency in today's competitive environment and support the accelerated growth we are anticipating," said Andreas Schultz, North American regional president/CFO.

Ottobock will also be moving its fabrication and after-sales service operations from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City.

Of that move, Schultz said in a news release, "The relocation of fabrication and after-sales service to Salt Lake City allows us to closely link our research and development efforts with those functions. Merging these operations will take advantage of our existing infrastructure and build synergies within manufacturing to better support evolving policy and procedure compliance and ultimately will allow us to create products and service that best support our clinical customers and their patients."

As of early April, Ottobock said operations were being established in a 52,700 square-foot facility and that hiring was underway.

"A comprehensive transition and training plan is in place in order to minimize disruption to customers and to ensure the continued high-quality level of Ottobock service," the company said.

In addition to wheelchairs, aids to daily living and other mobility-oriented products, Ottobock says it manufactures more than 50,000 types of prosthetic and orthotic components.

The company is based in Duderstadt, Germany, and employs more than 7,000 people in 50 branches worldwide.