Los Angeles is often chided for failing to hold on to its history. It is true that, compared to most major American cities, the City of Angels is younger, with a restless, transient spirit that discourages forming long-standing roots.

	Then and now: Penny Rangel (left) inherited the company her grandfather founded in 1925. Today she runs it with the help of (from left) Dorcas Prasad, Jaime Sanches, Rosa Lebado, and Carmen Jimenez.

But don’t tell that to Mrs Wheeler. When it comes to her medical equipment needs, the Los Angeles resident has been going to the same address for 6 decades, starting with her first pair of crutches as a 13-year-old polio patient. That address, on Pico Boulevard just outside of Beverly Hills, has been home to Pico Medical Rents since 1935.

In a city known for frenzied real estate speculation and sprawling development, Pico Medical Rents’ occupation of the same location since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President is amazing. That is about 30 years before Medicare or Medicaid was established, and well before power wheelchairs—or power lunches, for that matter—came into play.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Pico Medical’s landmark location is one of the keys to its enduring success. Stability is a constant theme running throughout this family-owned company’s operating philosophy.

History in the Making
Glen Edwards founded The Wheelchair Company in 1925 and changed the name to Pico Rents when he moved the business to Pico Boulevard in 1935. An entrepreneur at heart, Edwards could not have expected, even in his most inspired moments, that his business would thrive into the next century. And he probably never imagined that a granddaughter would one day serve as the company’s president and manage it, half of the time from her home office in a small town 700 hundred miles north of Los Angeles.

“As far as we know, we were the first wheelchair company in Los Angeles,” says that granddaughter, Penny Rangel, who started working at the company 31 years ago after graduating from high school.

William Edwards—son of Glen, father of Penny—ran the business until he died in 1967. At the time, there was no succession plan, and no expectations that Penny or her two brothers, Bill and Don, would keep the business going. The story of the small HME company on Pico Boulevard could have ended there. But Edwards’ wife, Irene, and her three children rallied.

“My mom worked part-time as the bookkeeper, but she had no experience running a business,” Rangel says. “There never had been any conversation about me getting involved in the business. I was focusing on being a mommy and a wife.”

Rangel’s older brother, Bill, returned from duty in the Vietnam War, joining his mother, sister, and younger brother. “Fortunately, we had people in place at the company during the transition until my brother could get situated and feel confident enough that he could be in charge,” Rangel says. “I started to enjoy working here, wearing the many hats that the business requires, from scrubbing the toilets to purchasing new products.”

Soon after the third generation took charge, Pico Rents diversified into party equipment rentals—a relatively new market that was starting to emerge on the West Coast. As its party rental business grew, Pico Rents began to outgrow its 6,000-square-foot location, but rather than leave the Pico Boulevard location in search of a larger facility, the family decided to split the business into two companies.

Rangel’s brother Don took over the party equipment side and moved it to another location in Los Angeles. In 1989, Rangel became president of Pico Medical.

Location, Location, Location
Location is everything. For Pico Medical, that business mantra probably applies much more than it does for most other HME providers. On an obvious level, a 60-plus-year presence at one address speaks volumes about a company’s stability and loyalty to its customer base. But Pico Medical also owns the land where it operates—a financial position of strength that gives the company a significant edge against competitors. “A major advantage is being the landlord of our property, especially considering what I understand our competitors are paying [to lease],” Rangel says. “In hard times, we could literally stop paying ourselves rent.”

And in competitive times, which never go away, Pico Medical Rents, if forced, could go “toe-to-toe” with larger companies in the equipment-pricing game. “If a huge competitor opened a few doors down the street, I’m going to be in a better position than the average business owner to beat their prices and maintain my service,” Rangel says. “We have never had to do that, but it certainly is an option.”

High Standards
Beyond location, Pico Medical’s commitment to stability in other areas of the business, including employee retention and purchasing decisions, is also a key to its success. As a long-standing philosophy, Rangel never compromises her expectations of employees or suppliers. And once she believes in them, she sticks with them.

“We make sure the equipment is quality equipment, not the cheapest thing we can purchase,” Rangel says. “I’ve never been what I consider an HMO retail store. You can certainly get a walker for $20, but we usually spend considerably more to give the customer better quality. It cuts into overall profits a little bit, but people are going to talk about where they got the product, and I believe quality is what keeps them coming back.”

Predictably, Pico Medical’s strongest referral sources, according to Rangel, are caregivers who prefer dealing with a local business instead of a mail-order company.

Rangel holds her 12-person staff to high standards. Mentored by other hard-working people when she started working at Pico Medical at the age of 18, she says she can be a tough cookie who expects 110%.

It could not be any other way, considering a telecommuting arrangement that sees Rangel shuttling back and forth between Los Angeles and a home office in Northern California on a monthly basis. Spending about 2 weeks away from the Pico location every month, Rangel counts on her team, including manager Dee Prasad, to handle the day-to-day business. But Rangel has never really “gone” with computer technology providing instant reports on everything from expenses to receivables. “I have a wonderful staff, from entry-level people to upper management, that allows me to work this way,” she says. “I contemplated selling the business when we made the move [to Auburn, Calif] several years ago. I decided to give my staff a chance to see how well things run without me, and they actually run better.”

Daily Rewards
The daily interaction with customers like Mrs Wheeler gives the Pico Medical staff a unique opportunity to connect with history, to be part of something enduring—no small consideration in times of uncertainty, economic, or otherwise.

But Rangel also acknowledges that history alone will not keep good people at the company indefinitely. “I start with a person who has a good work ethic, which is hard to find nowadays, but they are out there,” she says. “Then I make sure the salary is extremely adequate so they do not go somewhere else. I get the salary surveys and pay above the national averages. I make an offer they can’t refuse.”

For her part, Rangel says she has always been satisfied with slow, steady growth for the company, which is approaching $2 million in annual revenue. “We have just never been expansion-oriented. We have never gone after the HMO managed care contracts. In the long term I did not feel that was a profitable venture. As long as we see growth every year, we are happy.”

With more than 3 decades of her life devoted to Pico Medical Rents, Rangel says she has no foreseeable plans to write the final chapter for one of the industry’s oldest companies. “People ask me, ‘How can you be in this business, it is so depressing?’ I always tell them, quite the contrary, it is a very rewarding business. When someone comes in—an elderly man or woman, a paraplegic—and you show them a product they were unaware of and that gives them back their independence, their eyes light up. Those kinds of stories mean a lot to me, and to our employees.”

Judging by Pico Medical’s loyal customers, the feeling is mutual. Rangel says she still sees Mrs Wheeler at least once every 6 months.

Aaron Smith is a contributing writer for Dealer/ Provider.