WILLOWWOOD
a plant and offices outside the village of Mount Sterling.
The company’s major product is the “liner,” a socklike padding that goes over a residual limb at the point where it connects to a prosthesis. WillowWood’s innovation was using a fabric-covered gel to make the liner more comfortable and versatile.
The major players that sell liners and prosthetics are much larger. For example, Germany-based Ottobock Group has nearly 40 times more employees and annual sales of about $1 billion. WillowWood declined to provide its annual sales.
For some perspective, U.S. sales of prosthetics and related products and services are about $3.5 billion to $4 billion per year, according to the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association, a trade group.
Arbogast spends much of his time brainstorming the next product innovation. He invests heavily in research and development and thinks his company has a competitive advantage because it is small and nimble.
“The usual analogy we use in-house is that we get a dozen singles and one home run, and the home run is what pays for the next dozen singles,” he said. “So there’s a pressure to find the next home run.”
He is uneasy that the most-recent home run was the first gel liner, released in 1996.
The beginning
WillowWood exists because of a tragedy. William E. Arbogast, Ryan’s great-grandfather, was a railroad employee who got into an accident with a train and lost both of his legs, one above the knee and one below the knee. He found that the prosthetic limbs available to him were painful and difficult to use.
In 1907, he founded the Ohio Willow Wood Co. at his home near Mount Sterling. He had built his own prosthetic legs from the wood of a willow tree and had a plan to make more and then sell them, according to historical documents provided by the company.
The business grew, expanding its offerings and making advancements in the design of its legs and feet. In 1921, the company introduced a wool liner to cover customers’ residual limbs, which helped to reduce pain and irritation at the contact point with the prosthesis.
Control of the company passed from father to son through the generations. The longest-serving president was Bob Arbogast, Ryan’s father, who led the company from 1978 to 2011.
During Bob Arbogast’s tenure, the employee count more than doubled. Today, he holds the title of chairman and comes to the office almost every day but steers clear of most management decisions.
The company is Willowwood employee Nathan Cochenour adds pigment to a below-the-knee prosthetic.
“We’re a company that’s used to making big bets and the field is turning into one in which you have to.”
Ryan Arbogast, president of WillowWood now owned by Ryan Arbogast and his three sisters. One of the sisters does consulting work for the company; the other two are not involved on a daily basis.
Work and challenges
Ryan Arbogast did not get much of a honeymoon at the helm when he became president in 2011. A little more than a year later, a federal court in Florida ruled that several WillowWood liners had components that infringed on patents of another company. The court said WillowWood could not sell the affected products while the issue was on appeal.
This meant a sudden halt of sales of the company’s most popular items, a potentially fatal blow.
Arbogast and his managers responded by rushing to develop a new liner while also mounting a legal appeal. In 2015, a federal appeals court reversed the lower court, finding that WillowWood did not violate patent law and lifting the ban on sales.
“It takes a lot to ruffle our feathers now,” Arbogast said, adding that the experience functioned as a kind of reboot for the company, from top managers to line workers.
Everyone had a renewed sense of purpose, he said. And, the company survived without laying off workers.
On the manufacturing floor, Barb Lugenbeel, 67, makes adjustments to prosthetic feet. A row of feet are lined up at her work stations, with varying sizes and skin tones.
“It’s a rewarding job,” she said. “I have seen people come in, in wheelchairs, and leave on legs.”
She lives in Mount Sterling, a Madison County village with about 1,800 residents. WillowWood is located in a small part of the village that extends into Pickaway County and is one of the 10 largest employers in the county.
The products
Product development continues, and, of course, new products need to be tested.
Selected patients who agree to be test subjects for new equipment receive products and services in exchange. Many of the people who receive services live in the mostly rural area near the plant.
Among them is Ethan Maag, 14, who was born without feet and without a right hand.
“He got first set of prosthetics when he was 9 months old and he started walking when he was 15 months old,” said Kristen Lewis, his mother, who lives in Fayette County.
He is one of the test program’s biggest success stories. He plays baseball, works on cars and is learning how to weld. And, he has ambitions to compete in bull-riding in the professional rodeo circuit.
His mother says none of this would have been possible if not for the early intervention of WillowWood’s testing staff — and the fact that the services were free.
“Insurance doesn’t cover more than one set of prosthetics every three years and for a growing kid that’s impossible,” she said.
Indeed, prosthetics are expensive.
Nearly all of WillowWood’s sales are made through prosthetic clinics that resell to customers who have a prescription from a doctor. The retail price of a prosthetic foot, for example, ranges widely, from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Pricing for a liner ranges from roughly $500 to $1,500.
Arbogast did not discuss specific plans for the future, but he did say that his industry is poised for rapid technological change. He sees this as an environment that is well-matched to a company like his.
“This is going to be a really cool field to be in for the next couple of decades,” he said. “We’re a company that’s used to making big bets and the field is turning into one in which you have to.”