Pasco wheelchair maker wraps up likely record year with holiday push, plans for big 2020

It’s all hands on deck for an end-of-the-year push on the production line at the Pasco Permobil facility that produces TiLite manual wheelchairs.

As customized orders are rushing out the door in Pasco during the busiest time of year, new leadership has come in at the company’s North American headquarters in Tennessee, and Permobil says it has aggressive expansion and new products planned for 2020 and beyond.

Charles “Chuck” Witkowski has been named Sweden-based Permobil’s executive vice president of business regions covering both North and South America.

A Tennessee native, Witkowski is a graduate of the University of Montana in Missoula, and he comes to the company with an extensive background in the health care field.

He most recently was the vice president of Hillrom, a medical device company, and also served as CEO of Hubble Telemedical, a telemedicine provider.

“The opportunity to advance Permobil’s continued strong growth in the Americas means a great deal to me professionally and personally,” Witkowski said. “Permobil products are the gold standard in the complex rehab industry. Everyone in the Americas who faces mobility challenges deserves the gold standard to meet their functional, social and medical needs.”

Permobil sells mobility solutions, including the TiLite manual wheelchairs, power wheelchairs, and seating and positioning products.

And it is investing significantly in the manual mobility division, with 2020 expected to reveal a number of innovations, according to Witkowski.

Mark Westphal, the director of customer service at the Pasco site, says it is gearing up to launch a new product in March that has yet to be announced publicly. He couldn’t reveal more at this time.

“Permobil aims to be the unquestioned innovator in mobility solutions and all the key segments in which we operate,” Witkowski said. “We want users to have as much freedom as possible.”

Witkowski said he wants to continue the company’s mission to develop and attract highly capable teams of employees.

Permobil has about 1,600 workers in 17 countries, and its products are available in 70 countries.

230 Pasco employees

At the Pasco site, its 230-plus employees are in high gear trying to get orders out the door for customers who are using the last of their insurance benefits before the year ends, according to Westphal, who has been with Permobil since 1997.

“We’re pulling resources from every department,” he said. “It really doesn’t matter who you are or what you do — people are ready to pitch in.”

Whether the job is assembling parts or pushing a broom, those who work on the line daily are being joined by office staff, as well as executives, Westphal said — all to close out what could be a record year.

Permobil acquired TiLite in 2014, and demand has led to increased production at the site ever since. The company went from 15,000 units in Pasco in 2014 to 17,000 last year, and Westphal says it is on track to complete at least that many units in 2019.

“December is always the busiest month,” Westphal said. “... The orders start in the middle of November and extend into the middle of December. The last three to four weeks of December are really crazy.”

As the second-longest tenured employee in Pasco, Westphal has been around to see a number of changes. Permobil Pasco started as Sandvik Special Metals, which made specialized titanium products.

TiLite eventually spun off to focus on wheelchairs. The Pasco facility now operates the TiLite brand under the umbrella of Permobil.

“There’s been so much change in the past few years, but we’ve been very successful,” Westphal said.

Permobil’s goal is to expand the company by 10 times in the next five years, and the manual wheelchair division will have its own growth as part of that goal, Westphal said.

That’s on top of an annual growth of 20 percent the past five years, according to Permobil’s website.