A new mobility scooter company will debut its wares at Medtrade 2024. The Great Circle Machinery Corp has experience manufacturing items with wheels, such as garden tillers, but the Ontario, Calif.-based company is a newcomer in the rehab/mobility category.
With a relatively large 400-sq-ft booth, Great Circle intends to debut its Super Handy brand of mobility scooters, complete with a 48-volt lithium battery platform. Jeff Chen, vice president and managing director, reveals that the entire company is less than a decade old. The foray into mobility has been going on for two-and-a-half years.
“A couple years ago we identified a need on the mobility scooter side and we integrated our 48-volt lithium battery platform,” Chen says. “We're using our lithium battery platform technology from the outdoor power equipment sector, transferred into the mobility scooter side for three wheels, four wheels, wheelchair, and even the tricycle. We have an electric tricycle using the same battery platform.”
A 52,000-sq-ft warehouse receives imported items and all fulfillment is in-house. “We are ecommerce driven, selling from Amazon and other online channels,” Chen reveals. “Now we're looking into the retail brick-and-mortar sector. We need the larger booth space at Medtrade to properly demonstrate our brand within the mobility sector.”
Chen intends to show off “five or six” types of scooters and promises interesting items for HME providers. “We know we're going to get attention,” he says. “We average about 500 scooters per month in sales. We want to continue to explore our brand at Medtrade, get attention, and hopefully the brick-and-mortar side will pick up our brand.”
Chen describes the items as “lower price” and “light weight”—designed to compete with more established brands. “We have an advantage in terms of pricing, plus we offer quality,” Chen adds. “We have local customer support in California that is dedicated to customers, so when they ask us for parts or troubleshooting, we are glad to help.”