Dr. James Andrews, widely known in sports circles as the “alpha doc” of the sports-medicine world, became concerned several years ago about the frequency of what have become commonly known as Tommy John surgeries.
The surgery is named after Tommy John, the Major League pitcher who underwent in 1974 the first surgical graft procedure to fix a damaged ligament in his pitching arm. Prior to the experimental ligament reconstruction he was told that he had about a 3 percent chance of pitching again once the procedure was completed.
Despite the dire prognostication he was able keep on pitching for 14 more years in the majors. But within the past few years, Dr. Andrews couldn’t avoid noticing that he was receiving a growing number of calls about similar cases from his sport-medicine network.
That network is composed not only of doctors but also athletic trainers, physical therapists and strength-and-conditioning coaches treating not only professional athletes but enthusiasts from across the entire sports spectrum.
It now also includes Bauerfeind AG, since 1929 a privately-held, Germany-based developer of functional supports braces and compression therapies for damaged and stressed joints.
The CEO of Bauerfeind’s U.S. subsidiary, Dr. Gregory J. Vaughn told Global Atlanta that Dr. Andrews contacted the company several years ago in an effort to develop what was released in recent weeks as the EpiTrain PowerGuard, an elbow brace that provides “hyperextension control.”
The PowerGuard is just the latest product of the company which is based in the Thuringia state of Germany and manufactures medical products including orthopedic braces and support for every joint and back as well as compression socks and insoles.
It also is the result of research spanning several years by the company’s innovation center that includes 30 specialist engineers who have been responsible for providing the innovations in products and materials upon which the company’s reputation is based.
“We even make our own yarn; the factory is right next to the corporate headquarters,” said Dr. Vaughn, who hosted on Oct. 6 in Atlanta, Thomas Bauerfeind, the CFO of the parent and other company officials in town for the opening of the company’s new office in Midtown.
During an interview prior to a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new office in the Promenade tower at 1230 Peachtree St., Dr Vaughn said that Midtown would prove to be an attractive location for Bauerfeind as a growing hub for innovative health science companies and as a central location from which to attract qualified employees.
He added that he was hired two years ago to develop the widespread brand awareness in the U.S. that Bauerfeind enjoys in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Bauerfeind products are widely known among professional athletes for their quality and he aspires to have them recognized more generally as BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes and Porsches are among U.S. consumers for their engineering excellence.
A summa cum laude graduate of Emory University where he recently joined the board of directors and a graduate of the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Vaughn also has held a variety of management positions in sales, marketing and business development with Medtronic Inc., an Irish medical device company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
Although Bauerfeind has had a presence in the U.S. since 1985 when it opened a distribution center in Marietta, it is aiming to heighten its presence substantially and is in the process of expanding both in-house marketing and sales staffs.
In addition to hiring such an experienced CEO who has both a medical and business background and taking on the 8,500 square feet of office space in Midtown, the company’s commitment to the U.S. market is evident in other ways as well.
Dr. Vaughn announced that the U.S. subsidiary was about to have its products available at 40 of Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. flagship stores across the U.S. with the possibility of adding others in the future.
It also is to build a retail location in the South Campus of the Lakepoint Sport Complex, the 1,200 acre venue northwest of Atlanta backed by former Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox and other investors.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed attended the late evening ribbon cutting, having just returned from Washington where he had made a quick visit to the White House at the invitation of President Barack Obama.
The president had invited leaders from around the country to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership passed in Atlanta the day before. After congratulating Bauerfeind’s officials for relocating to Midtown, Mr. Reed quipped that Mr. Obama probably would welcome receiving one of the firm’s back-braces given his continued interest in playing basketball.
“Now that I come to think of it, I might need one too,” the mayor joked.
Mr. Bauerfeind, the CFO, then traced the history of the country from its origins when his great grandfather, Bruno Bauerfeind, began producing medical compression hosiery.
His grandfather, Rudolf Bauerfeind, expanded the company’s operations internationally into Switzerland, but it has been his father Hans Bauerfeind, who aggressively expanded its presence into more that 30 countries with its own subsidiaries and formalized partnerships and many other countries through sales representatives.
Following a visit from Atlanta attorney Thomas Harrold and Eike Jordan, founder of the Southeastern chapter of the German American Chamber of Commerce, Hans Bauerfeind decided to open a distribution facility in Marietta because he was persuaded Atlanta was a growing city and a favorable base from which to start in the U.S.
Thomas Bauerfeind recalled visiting the facility when he was 14 or 15 years old, and underscored his support for the current expansion plans in the U.S. citing the widespread presence of its products here including among professional athletes such as Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Jeremy Lin of the Charlotte Hornets.
“They all actually bought our products,” he added pridefully. “You know that’s not really typical. Most athletes are paid to show off their products, but not ours.”
He also said that he was proud of the company’s relationship with the Olympic movement having supported both the Summer and Winter Games since 2002. In the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, Bauerfeind was an official partner of the organizing committee.
In 2012, it offered medical care to all 10,500 athletes in the 204 nations represented at the Olympic Village in London. It also provided its products and services to the athletes at the Games in Sochi, Russia, last year.
Before handing the podium over to Dirk Treiber, the company’s chief international officer, Mr
Bauerfeind drew laughter from the 75 or so attendees saying that the company certainly would be willing to have Mr. Obama fitted for one of its backbraces.
Mr. Treiber alluded to the scope of the company’s reach saying that the company services 6 million patients per year and is expanding rapidly around the world including in China and Russia.
While its presence in the U.S. has been successful, he added that it was time “to reinvent ourselves here,” and “to begin the journey once again with the office move and expanding the team.”