New owner enters new markets

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Louis Orloff, a business broker with more than 30 years of experience in the mail-order sporting goods and Internet marketing business, was primed for retirement—until ActiveForever came calling.

“The company was in limbo financially,” said Orloff, president of ActiveForever. “It's a good brand—well respected. It just needed to be reformulated.”

With two retail locations, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based e-commerce provider offers home medical equipment, assistive technology, athletic performance and rehabilitation devices, lifestyle aids and home medical equipment. Orloff retained former owner Erika Feinberg as a consultant to develop strategic growth initiatives.

Since he acquired the business in July 2014, Orloff has added low vision products and product labeling to ActiveForever's list of services.

“We want to enable other big DME companies and healthcare systems to be able to reach out to us if they want their own non-slip socks with their logo on it,” said Feinberg, acting CEO of ActiveForever.

Right now 60% of ActiveForever's sales come from individual customers, while 40% come from DME companies. Feinberg hopes to see those numbers shift in 2015.

“When you look at our database, we already have 3,000 DME companies buying from us,” she said. “We want the big ones to really dig in and create partnerships with us.”

Another area Orloff intends to expand: print education. Potential topics range from patient outcomes to low vision devices to infrared healing technology and light therapy.

“There are new products all the time and some people don't know how to use them or how their patients should use them,” he said.

Orloff, who lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., hopes to hire a new president in the near future to run the company's day-to-day operations.