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Local body cushion company goes into video reproduction Need for instructional tapes leads business to add the editing services By GREG STILES Mail Tribune ASHLAND - A Rogue Valley body cushion business with customers in 67 countries has expanded into an unrelated line of services. Body Support Systems now edits and reproduces videotapes for local clients on a 32-deck VCR system at its 300 E. Hersey St. plant. Massage therapist Tom Owens began what has grown into a company with more than a million dollars in annual sales in his garage 15 years ago, creating platforms for the comfort of his patients. His patented Body Cushion supports the patient's frame on sculpted foam layers. For years, Owens dealt with the cost and inconvenience of handling the promotional and instructional videos he needed for Body Support clients. "I used to get pallet loads of 2,000 videos," said Owens, 59. "And once you get them, you can't really change the tape." Eventually, he invested in sophisticated equipment that allowed the company to reproduce its own videos. That has led to Body Support reproducing videos for other companies, including Page One Productions of Jacksonville. In the early years Page One owner Arlis Duncan helped Body Support develop its training films and commercials. Now, she sends video masters to the Ashland firm for duplication. "It's a big help for me, because I always have to send things off to Portland," said Duncan, who does business, demonstration and training videos as well as local commercials. "It's not a natural progression (to go into video reproduction). But because they do so much of their sales using videotapes instead of sending out to other people, it made sense business-wise to bring it in-house. In doing that, they are able to offer it to other businesses in the area. As soon as I saw they were making really nice quality tapes, I've sent most of my business to them in the last year." Owens said the new venture has yet to bolster the bottom line, bringing in about $13,000 - or 1 percent of the company's yearly sales. It's a revenue source that wasn't given much thought until 49-year-old Steve Brown returned to Ashland after a 15-year stay in Southern California. Brown is a former customer who free-lanced for Body Support before moving back to Oregon in 1999. He oversees the company Web site, produces all videos and is in charge of running office operations. In the past year, Brown has worked on a half-dozen educational and sales video projects, ranging from five minutes to an hour. He also oversaw relocation of a sound stage and doubling of Body Support's reproduction capacity from 16 decks. "We have to deal with both European and North American standards when we're producing the videos," Brown said. "Our machinery allows it to work with any kind of format that exists in the world." Body Support has 11 employees and has had sales of more than a million dollars in each of the past five years. The company had as many as 23 employees in the late 1990s, but shifted sales to outside distributors rather than in-house phone operators. "We've been pretty-well plateaued for five years," Owens said. "The beauty is that we've been able to maintain that kind of revenue with fewer employees and using distribution. In fact, the volume of product has gone up through our 132 distributors all over the planet." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.