Staffordshire sports wheelchair company in takeover
The Staffordshire company that made the wheelchairs for Great Britain's paralympic basketball team at the London Olympics has been bought by a bigger Black Country rival in a deal thought to have a multi-million pound price tag.
Founded more than a quarter of a century ago by by former paralympian Greg Eden and wheelchair basketball player Russel Simms, RGK has grown into one of the world's leading designers and manufacturers of tailor-made wheelchairs.
Russel and Greg met as wheelchair basketball internationals after car crashes left them both disabled.
They drew on their experiences to start designing lightweight made-to-measure chairs for sporting use. The company makes wheelchairs for athletes across the world, including the eye-catching Union Jack covered chairs used by Great Britain's London 2012 paralympic basketball team.
RGK now makes around 1,500 chairs a year at its Burntwood factory, where it employs around 40 people, and turnover thought to be in excess of £3 million a year.
It has been bought for an undisclosed sum by Brierley Hill-based Sunrise Medical to become part of the bigger company's sports product arm. It is understood Greg Eden has resigned as a director following the deal, but Russel Simms is staying on as RGK's commercial director.
Sunrise Medical also makes custom-designed wheelchairs, including an electrically-powered range. It has sold thousands of chairs to the NHS and wheelchair dealers since developing its Quickie Salsa M chair in 2010.
The Brierley Hill operation, which employs around 150, is part of a German-based international group with 1,800 employees worldwide.
Thomas Rossnagel, CEO at Sunrise Medical said: "Personally, I am very excited about the prospect of a united RGK and Sunrise Medical, especially leading up to the Rio 2016 Paralympics." He added: "RGK will play a vital role in Sunrise Medical's strategy of expanding further into the high end sports and active manual wheelchair market."
