Aid maker Mountway bought by US group
Mountway, a South Wales company which makes devices to help disabled people, has been acquired by US-owned Drive Medical.
Mountway, based in Tredegar, designs and supplies lifts for use in bathrooms and bedrooms. It works with health professionals and consumers to develop the products.
Drive Medical said the business would continue to operate from its site at Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate, with Darren Kinsalla remaining as general manager.
Kinsalla said: "Mountway looks forward to being a part of Drive Medical and believes the relationship will bring added value to our customers and business partners."
Harvey Diamond, chairman and chief executive of Drive Medical, said: "We are extremely pleased to have Mountway as part of the Drive family of companies. Mountway has a proven track record for product development and innovation of bath lifts and independent living aids."
Nordic Care Services, formerly owned by Mountway, will now operate independently.
Mountway's directors before the sale were Peter Langlois and Richard Jeffrey Langlois. The company's most recent filed accounts, for the year to December 2009, show it made a pre-tax loss of £1.4m on turnover of £6.5m, compared to a loss of £260,000 on turnover of £6.4m the year before.
In the accounts, which were made available in April 2011, director Peter Langlois said the turnover rise had been "disappointing", and that in increase in sales via a high street retail partner had not materialised. The company had invested in anticipation of extra work.
The company's gross margin also suffered because of increased market pressures on pricing, Langlois said. The accounts also referred to a delay in arranging finance, caused in part by the company's late filing of its accounts.
