Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511140017
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The company, which employs 120, next month plans to hire 44 people when it moves to new quarters in the Valley Court office center near Roanoke Regional Airport.
"Roanoke is going to be our operational headquarters; we will be at 200 people within the next six to nine months," said Ed Buchholz, executive vice president of Universal Self Care and president of its Roanoke-based Thriftee Group unit.
Buchholz said Friday the company has signed an 11-year lease on the Valley Court space, initially renting 16,000 square feet with options to add 50,000 square feet. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"The company has grown by 40 percent a year for the past eight years," meaning it has outgrown its current quarters at 4818 Starkey Road in Roanoke County. The company's work force has grown from 25 people two years ago.
The lease, negotiated by Michael M. Waldvogel and M. Dale Poe of Waldvogel, Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group Inc., is with Abmar Valley Court, a limited partnership that acquired the 160,000-square-foot complex in January from First Union Corp. of Virginia.
Thriftee said it is the nation's third-largest third-party biller of diabetes products. That means it bills insurance companies for the diabetes-monitoring equipment that it supplies to customers.
It began as an independent pharmacy in Salem in 1986 and, five years later, opened a Medicare sales office in Tampa, Fla. A Medicare services office was later opened in San Jose, Calif.
The Thriftee Group merged in February 1994 with SugarFree Centers, a California-based home health company and retail supplier of diabetes care products. The combined companies were joined under the name of Universal Self Care.
Universal Self Care merged in April with a Detroit-based diabetes home health and supply center, Patient Care Services, making the combined divisions a $37-million-a-year corporation serving about 60,000 patients nationwide.
In addition to its national mail-order business, Universal Self Care operates in 17 states, providing in-home training in the use of self-administered tests and medication to newly diagnosed diabetics. The company solicits referrals from doctors and hospitals to find its customers, Buchholz said.
The local operations include taking telephone orders, processing insurance claims and making follow-up calls to customers.
The company also operates distribution centers in Roanoke, Detroit and Van Nuys, Calif.
Also, Universal Self Care reported net income of $80,771, or 1 cent per share, on revenues of $9.3 million for its first fiscal quarter, ended Sept. 30. That compares to a net loss of $169,583, equal to 4 cents per share, on revenues of $4.6 million in the 1994 quarter.
by CNB