Medicinal hosiery maker enters Richmond market

Tennessee-based medicinal hosiery maker Fit Rite Medical is making its first foray into the Richmond market with an initial product placement at three area Ukrop's grocery stores.

Fit Rite, which manufactures and sells socks, leggings and panty hose for people with circulation problems, diabetes or to prevent swelling, began placing its products in the stores yesterday.

The economy has forced Fit Rite to adjusts its business plan by putting their products into stores. "This is not what we wanted, but we had to due to the economy," said Cathy Cannon, who owns the company with Debbie McAmis.

In the past, Fit Rite sold their products through doctor offices, hospitals and medical supply providers. But because the price customers had to pay was so high -- more than $100 -- sales began to drop as the economy faltered.

"They are usually bundled in with the care doctors offer," McAmis said.

But many people who need the products were bypassing them because insurance didn't cover them.

To make up for the losses and to get their products to customer at lower prices, the owners decided about a year-and-a-half ago to start selling at retail establishments.

In all, Fit Rite products are now sold in more than 300 stores in five Southern states and Iowa.

McAmis and Cannon install stand-alone displays at stores themselves and brief pharmacists, who are already familiar with patient needs.

Most of Fit Rite's products will cost less than $20.

McAmis and Cannon would not discuss sales figures, but they said the retail portion of their business was continuing to grow and taking a bigger portion of their total revenue.

The medical supply industry includes about 12,000 companies with combined annual revenue of $78 billion, according to First Research, an Austin, Texas-based medical analysis firm.

Fit Rite is expanding into the Richmond area with the test at Ukrop's Super Markets and looking north to the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan area.

The owners say Ukrop's is the only retailer they plan to place their products in locally.

The grocer's store on Midlothian Turnpike across from Chesterfield Towne Center, in the Shops at White Oak Village on South Laburnum Avenue and in the Virginia Center Marketplace on Brook Road carry the products.

John Beckner, director of pharmacy and health services for Ukrop's, said he'll evaluate sales of Fit Rite's products during the next several months before deciding whether to place them at all of the chain's pharmacies.

Before putting them in the three stores, Beckner heard a presentation on the products and checked with other medical establishments that had used them in the past, he said.

"I saw that it was a good fit," he said.

Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or .