Corflex
A Vested for Growth Business Champion
Corflex, a Manchester manufacturer of orthopedic braces and rehabilitation products, is a close-knit business in which the owners treat employees like family.
In the 1950s, Corflex manufactured medical products for hospitals in Bridgeport, Conn. Current CEO Paul Lorenzetti and his brother, Ted, the director of key accounts and new business development, acquired the company in 1984, relocated to Melrose, Mass., and developed a line of orthopedic soft goods. Under their leadership, Corflex expanded several times and moved to Manchester in 1993.
Since then, the company has grown about 10 percent each year despite uncertainty in the medical device market.
Paul says Corflex’s definition of success goes deeper than quality products and a solid team—he considers all who work for the company family.
“We follow a family business model,” he says. “We have 56 employees—including eight who have their own family members working for us.”
Paul credits his father with instilling that inclusive ethic. “My father was a great business mentor and an incredible entrepreneur,” he says. “He told me whether it was the janitor or the CEO, if they were giving 100 percent in their job, they were equally valuable to the company.”
Those values prompted the American Psychology Association’s NH chapter to name Corflex the state’s top Psychologically Healthy Workplace in 2011. “In business, everything is measured with numbers. This award was significant to me because it measured the [company] environment,” Paul says.
The company maintains its caring atmosphere by engaging employees both in and out of the office. Individual departments develop their own objectives toward meeting the company’s annual strategic goals. “Every department is responsible for outlining all their own initiatives and tactics,” Paul says.
Corflex also supports charity events for current and former military members. More than 100 employees, family members and other associates participated in a recent 5K run/walk supporting disabled veterans.
Corflex’s business model has evolved over the years. While its complex-product manufacturing in NH continued to grow, it moved manufacturing for its commodity products from China to the Dominican Republic two years ago. The move gave the company greater quality control, while shrinking the manufacturing lifecycle from 90 days to about two weeks.
Among the company’s products are the next generation of knee braces. Corflex invested $600,000 in designing and launching the new line, and completed a 9,000-square-foot expansion in 2013 to make room for additional manufacturing and technical staff in Manchester.
“The new braces are much more complex and require many new processes,” says Paul. “Our domestic workforce is being retrained, and the assembly is being done right here in Manchester."
Paul says his most poignant business lesson is more about family than finances.
“I simply enjoy building a business that makes life better not only for our customers but for our employees,” he says.
Feedback from at least one customer indicates that Corflex’s tagline, “Designed for Life,” isn’t just a marketing slogan: “I have been a basketball referee for over 25 years and this year I strained my Achilles tendon during the season,” he wrote. “Your brace is the best I have found on the market.”
That testimonial goes to the heart of Corflex’s mission, says Paul. “Whether you’re stitching or the CEO, how much more invested are you when you’re making a product that’s giving someone their life back?”
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