Invacare history

1899: The firm is renamed the Worthington Manufacturing Company.

Worthington was named president in 1902, and five years later the firm was renamed the Worthington Company.

1907: The company's name is changed to Worthington Company.

1933: During the Great Depression, the firm goes into receivership and is reorganized as the Colson Corporation.

Colson moved from Elyria in 1952.

1953: Colson is purchased by the Pritzker family of Chicago and moved from Elyria.

The wheelchair division of Colson, however, was purchased in 1957 by three veteran employees: W.C. "Court" Shea, Charles "Chuck" Hazelton, and W.J. Pivacek.

In 1967, Mobilaid formed a subsidiary called the Rolls Equipment Company, which was charged with selling the company's products under the Rolls brand directly to hospitals and surgical equipment companies.

By 1970, Mobilaid had grown substantially and was producing nearly 40,000 wheelchairs per year.

BCC merged these companies later in 1971 to form Invacare Corporation.

By 1977, Ohio-Nuclear accounted for $125 million of Technicare's overall sales of $164.4 million, while Invacare contributed only $17 million.

Under the continued leadership of Mixon, Invacare had acquired 35 companies since the Mixon-led group bought the company in 1979.

When Mixon and his group officially assumed control of Invacare on January 2, 1980, the company had a low standing within the health care products industry.

In 1982, Mixon's emphasis on new product development paid off when Invacare was the first in the industry to introduce a motorized wheelchair with computerized controls.

To compound company problems, in 1985 the United States government changed its formulas for Medicare reimbursement.

In 1990, the company introduced a total of 53 new products, including significant innovations in wheelchair design with the introduction of microprocessors for power wheelchairs and the first wheelchair designed for use on airliners.

Invacare reported revenues of more than $263 million for the fiscal year ending 1991.

Of the 70 health care reform bills pending Congressional approval in 1993, 69 of them included legislation on the various services and equipment of home health care.

He joined Invacare in an executive capacity in 1994 as senior vice-president of product development.

One area of expansion was specialty seating systems and cushions, and the 1995 acquisitions of PinDot Products, Inc. (Northbrook, Illinois), Bencraft Limited (Birmingham, England), and Special Health Systems (Ontario, Canada) all contributed to that expansion.

In July 1996, Invacare purchased the leading maker of power wheelchairs in Australia, Roller Chair Pty.

In addition to this disappointment, 1997 was also noteworthy for the difficult environment in which Invacare had to operate, resulting in below average sales growth for the company of about 5.5 percent.

Also during 1999, Invacare began retooling its product line toward the eventual goal of selling all products under the Invacare name.

In June 2000, Invacare moved its stock listing from the NASDAQ to the prestigious New York Stock Exchange.

Toward that end, in late 2001 the company signed up legendary golfer Arnold Palmer to be the company spokesperson in a $5 million marketing campaign.

In 2015, after a follow up inspection, the agency informed Invacare that more work was required in both the company’s controls over its design process and design history as outlined in report two.