The fixer: Norm Frohreich

Over the years, Norman Frohreich has turned around 16 companies in various industries. The solutions, such as increasing efficiencies, have been similar, he says.

These days Frohreich, CEO of FullCircle Registry, has his sight set on small, rural HME providers. Frohreich spoke with HME News recently about his plans to roll up small HME providers, starting in Louisiana.

HME News: Why the focus on small providers?

Norman Frohreich: The small businesses tend to get ignored. They have built up their business and they have been very service-oriented and have done a wonderful job of providing that service. However, times have changed and some of these people are not business people, they are medical people and they haven't been able to transition to a more competitive marketplace.

HME: What has surprised you about some of these businesses?

Frohreich: I don't believe I found one HME business in Louisiana that has a website that's marketing for them. I've talked to $3 million or $4 million businesses that don't even have a web page. That's a negative, but it's so fixable, so fast.

HME: What's your strategy for turning around these companies?

Frohreich: We'd be taking inventory out of the stores—maybe leaving a week's supply. Everything will be consolidated into central warehousing and we'll be doing more drop shipping.

HME: The economy slowed down this project. Where are you now?

Frohreich: Investment capital went into the woodshed, but it's starting to come out now. We have a number of potential acquisition candidates and think we can cover the state with about 15 locations and cover it well. We will be doing letters of intent to get five or six companies on board and test the infrastructure. Then we'll clone it.