In The News

Week of May 19-25, 2006	HOUSTON SMALL BUSINESS 100

TMC Orthopedic LP
Joe Sansone, CEO
by Christine Hall
HOUSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL

TMC Orthopedic LP, a manufacturer and distributor of orthopedic and artificial limbs and supplier of cadaver tissue, has seen a lot of change over the past year.

"We are seeing larger national companies gobbling up smaller companies," says Joe Sansone, CEO. "We have also seen changes in the way reimbursements are done such as with Medicare."

The company found itself having to differentiate its business by offering products and services that the larger companies could not, and get out of the less profitable businesses

One of those was to focus on its amputee center that opened in 2005. TMC decided to take customer service to a new level by pairing amputees with health care professionals who would help them go through the entire process.

The center has allowed TMC to get out of the artificial knee and hip business -- the area in which most other orthopedic companies specialize - and replace it with a prosthetics division.

TMC plans to grow the center, which has already increased to three practitioners, as well as build a new center by the end of the year.

Although the company experienced its lowest growth last year, TMC's revenue grew 4 percent to $17 million in 2005 from $16 million in 2004.

Sansone says the company made a concerted effort to focus on its growth, and its first quarter 2006 figures are almost where the company was after seven months last year.

TMC, which was founded in 1992, is also a manufacturer and wholesaler of a line of spinal bracing.