Orthopaedics company hopes to put flesh on bones of US market

JRI Orthopaedics, which employs 104 staff, including 73 at its Sheffield office, saves taxpayers’ cash by ensuring people stay active for longer.

Its success means that people who had faced years of pain and inactivity can enjoy a new lease of life. The company hopes to create jobs in South Yorkshire by expanding into overseas markets.

Over the next year, the £17m- turnover group expects to sign distribution agreements in Canada and South Africa.

Its Furlong total hip replacement has been approved by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and JRI hopes to gain FDA approval for its VAIOS shoulder replacement system, with a view to entering the US market within the next two years.

JRI sales and marketing director Howard Widdall said yesterday: “It’s important to spread risk and if you’re only in one market, or a limited number of markets, then you can be the victim of downturns in the economy.

“We’ve traditionally had a good export business, in Spain in particular,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“We’ve recently appointed distributors in Australia and New Zealand. We have sale agents in Germany now, and we’ve recently appointed distributors in the Nordic region.

“Growth will come by entering new international markets and also growing our business here in the UK by entering new market segments in the orthopaedic industry.

“We are also working very hard to be a leader in the new interventions that are opening up, such as the repair of joint surfaces and the regeneration of bone.”

Mr Widdall said JRI also had “many interesting things” at the research phase. It is devising new products with help from academics and other commercial partners.

He added: “We are one of the few companies in the orthopaedic sector that has a UK manufacturing base and an ability to develop and design new products.

“Our links with UK academia help us to do that. We offer good opportunities for the UK universities to translate their research and development into products in the orthopaedic market.”

JRI, which has been based in Sheffield since 1977, aims to give patients a better quality of life for a longer period of time.

Mr Widdall added: “It’s one thing to address a joint disease problem with a short-term solution, but what we’re trying to do is develop solutions that will hopefully last the patient for an entire lifetime, without requiring further interventions.”

In other words, patients can have a lifetime’s mobility through one operation.

Mr Widdall added: “If I was a patient, I would want a ‘one-shot solution’ and not be faced with multiple interventions. We keep the patient very much at the centre of what we do.”

Altogether, the company helps around 20,000 patients a year improve their mobility.

According to Mr Widdall, JRI can help the patient get back to the life they had before they suffered from the disease, provided the illness is spotted quickly.

He added: “There’s a very significant number of people, where if you intervene early with the solution that allows repair of the joints, then you can prevent an awful lot of suffering.

“There’s also a big economic benefit because you will be intervening with patients who are younger and would be able to return to work and be productive members of society.

“We sincerely hope this activity will mean more jobs in Sheffield. As we enter more segments of the market, and produce a wider range of products, then inevitably, that’s going to mean more opportunities for employment.”

Mr Widdall said the company’s turnover was flat last year.

But he added: “As far as we can tell, the number of elective joint replacement procedures was down on the previous year in the UK, and in Spain, which is currently our biggest international market. Our sales performance was at least in line with, or probably better than, the market performance.

“We have just finished the first month of our new financial year, and average daily sales were 12.5 per cent up on those in April last year.”

JRI has high hopes for the VAIOS shoulder replacement system, which won the New Product of the Year (Mechanical) category in the 2010 British Engineering Excellence Awards.

It also scooped the Design Futures at Sheffield Hallam University Innovation title at last year’s Medilink Healthcare business awards.

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