Company behind Loopwheels achieves 50% sales growth year on year
Jelly Products, the company behind the innovative Loopwheels wheelchair wheels, has achieved a sales growth of 50 percent year on year, with distributors across the globe including mainland Europe, Australia, Japan, Brazil and South Africa.
Wife-and-husband design and manufacturing business Jelly Products came up with the idea of Loopwheels to improve the life of people with reduced mobility.
Helping wheelchair users feel more comfortable in their chairs and reducing vibrations over uneven terrain, Loopwheels are clever wheelchair wheels that replace traditional spokes with a new design that integrates suspension into the wheel and makes for a smoother passage over uneven surfaces.
Co-founder and Managing Director of Loopwheeels Gemma Pearce said: “Loopwheels reduce vibration by up to 70% compared to a spoked wheel so the amount of vibration transferred into the person in the chair is significantly reduced.
“There is a lot of research to show that ‘whole body vibration’ is associated with fatigue and lower back pain, increased spasticity (muscle contraction), and an increase in pressure sores and has an impact on bladder control.”
A £24,000 Innovate UK grant in 2013 helped Gemma and her husband Sam develop the loopwheel for wheelchairs, and a further £240,000 grant in 2017 allowed them to partner with other companies.
The two partner companies, Strategic Simulation and Analysis (SSA) and Composite Braiding, allowed Jelly Drops to further develop Loopwheels to go faster and for use off road and on rough terrain.
Loopwheels now makes 100 wheels a month.
Gemma added: “We’re growing rapidly now. We’ve got good distributors in important export markets. We plan to expand into our current market and to look at taking our technology into other areas. This could be for use in other vehicles including for lightweight electric vehicles in our congested cities.”
