By Kate Leibsle 
      
      
 Cramer Products may be the most internationally known Kansas City company you’ve never heard of, unless you are a serious athlete. In that case, you’re no doubt quite familiar with Cramer ointments, braces and mouth guards.

 Cramer, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, was the brainchild of Chuck Cramer. A pharmacy student and member of the University of Kansas track team, Cramer developed his own ointment because he didn’t like what was available at the time to soothe his sprained ankle. Some six years later, when he owned the Rexall Pharmacy in Gardner, he shared the ointment with local athletes and coaches, and a company was born.
 
Getting the Word Out
 So, how did this little company in Gardner come to the attention of so many? One of the things Cramer hasn’t had to do too much of is advertising.

Granted, for its niche, widespread consumer advertising has never been the goal. The people who need to know about Cramer do: athletic trainers, athletic directors at most major colleges and universities and thousands of coaches at all levels of competition.

 “It’s sort of the nature of the business,” said Tom Rogge, president and CEO. “It’s a well-kept secret; although I’ve been on planes where someone sees my bag and says, ‘Those are your products? I used Cramer products in high school.’”

 All that being said, it’s not surprising that when the company did need to advertise in the late 1920s, it again was an innovator – of the celebrity endorsement. No less than Knute Rockne put his seal of approval on Cramer in 1928.

 “There was a mutual friend of Chuck’s and Knute Rockne’s who put the two together,” Rogge said. “Knute appeared in print ads.”
 
All in the Family
  Today, Cramer employs more than 50 people in its Gardner facility of five buildings on eight acres. It was recently one of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Top 10 Small Businesses of the Year, and is entirely employee-owned.

 “Chuck never wanted the third generation involved in the business,” Rogge said. “He’d seen too many times how businesses fail with the third generation.” 

  So when the second generation wanted to retire in the mid 1980s, the employee stock ownership plan was put in place. Employees bought 65 percent of the business then and in 2001 bought out the remainder.

 The only member of the Cramer family involved in the business today is a grandson of the founder who sits on the board of directors.

 But even without someone named Cramer on the payroll, the company retains a very familial, community feeling. The community feeling comes from a time when the company was literally owned by the community, because Chuck Cramer had sold stock to people in Gardner to raise money.

Additionally, for much of its history, Cramer was the largest company in town. Many of the employees at Cramer have worked there for more than 10 or 20 years. One worker is celebrating her 59th year with the company.
 
Tough Times Yield a Stronger Company
 The familial feeling certainly is important on a day-to-day basis; but that feeling—indeed the company itself—was severely tested in the early 1990s, Rogge said.

 In 1990, the company partnered with Bo Jackson, who had played for the Kansas City Royals and was playing football for the Los Angeles Raiders, on a new product, Bo Med. The company put its all into the product; it hired people, filled warehouses and signed a five-year contract with the two-sport star. Ninety days before the product was to launch, Jackson suffered what ended up being a career-ending injury. Suddenly, Cramer was a company without a product namesake and spokesman.

 It was just after this that Rogge joined the company. In 1992, after nine months of trying to market Bo Med, the management team went to the Lake of the Ozarks for a retreat.

 “We evaluated the situation, and came out knowing we needed to downsize and focus on our core product lines,” Rogge said.

 The company cut 15-20 percent of its workforce, flattened the management structure from seven people on six levels to just a CEO and four vice presidents, and dedicated itself to finding new products that fit its core mission. The results were immediate and impressive: 1992-93 saw the company sell more products than it had in the previous 10 years, Rogge said. In 1994, sales and profits were a record levels.

 The company also set its sights on a long-term strategy of growing through acquisition. In 2004, it purchased a competitor, Cosom, and this summer announced the acquisition of Active Ankle Systems of Louisville, Ky., one of its major vendors. 
 
Successful Failure
 The failure of Bo Med also gave the company a unique opportunity to look at its processes and procedures and realign itself for the future. 

 The company also developed a strategic marketing plan after an exhaustive SWOT analysis, compiling of comparative data and a lot of thought about what the company’s strategic initiatives should be. The marketing plan is reviewed yearly, and in 2005 was complemented by a five-year overall company plan.
 
Lessons Learned
 Bo Med wasn’t the only time the company got itself into a position of having a product that didn’t work out. One situation involved the purchase of a patent for a special splint. The other involved a salesperson intent on breaking into the pharmacy industry. After a couple of years, the effort was abandoned because it didn’t yield good results.

 “Those times just reinforced our commitment to sticking with our core business,” Rogge said.
 
Education for All
 One of the cornerstones of Cramer through the years has been its attention to education. To that end, the company had its own print shop for years and printed a bi-weekly newsletter, The First Aider. Today, the First Aider is published eight times a year online.

 “It always gave practical hints, lots of product promotion, etc.,” Rogge said. “It was, and is, very popular.”

 Chuck Cramer also founded the National Athletic Trainer’s Association, and the organization that now boasts more than 30,000 members.
 
Future Fitness
 Rogge is well aware that having employees who remain loyal and working for the company year after year is a good thing, and unusual today; but that loyalty also exacts a price: age. That’s why developing a succession plan is a goal for the company. Additional plans for the company include:

• Maximizing the opportunities gained by the acquisition of Active Ankle especially the medical personnel market that comes with the package.
• Making more inroads into retail outlets for direct consumer sales.
• Continuing to look at acquisition possibilities. Rogge said that it is difficult for the company to organically increase its marketshare at the education institutional level, so acquisition is the best route for growth.
• Developing new products.

  It’s hard to see a future that isn’t bright for Cramer Products. In a nation obsessed with fitness and sports, someone will always have need for athletic tape, mouth pieces and ankle and knee braces. 

  “We’ve never been financially stronger,” Rogge said. “I’ve been here 17 years. It’s a great brand; a strong one. It’s fun to participate in the building of it.”