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Last Updated on 04/04/2025 by Sarah Sarsby
The British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) has welcomed Merits Health Products UK as a new member. Merits Health Products UK offers manual wheelchairs, powerchairs, rehab powerchairs, mobility scooters, accessibility equipment, stairlifts, patient aids, and seating and positioning products.
The BHTA recently caught up with Frank Robertson, UK Manager of Merits Health Products UK, to learn more about how Frank started at the firm, the company’s extensive product portfolio, and how becoming a BHTA member affirms that the company is ethical, professional, and reputable.
Frank is a professional mechanical engineer with over 35 years’ experience in engineering, manufacturing, and management, including jobs outside of the UK.
In 2018, Frank was looking for a new challenge. He had worked in aerospace, defence, consumer electronics, telecommunications, even environmental services, and banking. He was looking for something different, something that would make a difference to people.
Frank was approved by a recruitment company that was looking for someone with experience of managing diverse engineering teams from different companies and institutions to research, design, and build a leading-edge power wheelchair for young people. A wheelchair that would meet the mobility challenges that young people said they faced every day and also incorporate the latest in technology that could complement a wheelchair.
The project was the Wheels of Change led by the charities Whizz Kidz and Duchene UK and funded by the players of the Peoples Postcode Lottery and Motability Operations.
“It was an extremely challenging project, placing young wheelchair users at the centre of design, and, in spite of the Covid pandemic, we delivered the ambitious Dream Wheelchair prototype in November 2020,” Frank said.
The Dream Wheelchair project was a success, and the charities wanted to investigate if it would be possible to develop it for production and launch it on the market.
Enter Mike Laiman, Global VP Operations of Merits Health Products Co.
Frank explained: “Merits not only designs and builds mobility products under its own Merits, Avid, Pilot, and Precision Comfort brands, but it is also one of the major contract manufacturers of powered wheelchairs and other mobility products.”
Mike saw the potential in the Dream Wheelchair and the similarities it had to the Avid Axcel Front Wheel Drive wheelchair that was already in development. Mike committed Merits to build the Mk2 and Mk3 prototypes of the Dream Wheelchair.
Frank continued: “Sadly, the funding available to Whizz Kidz and Duchenne UK ran out, and Mike asked me to join Merits, which was investigating entering the UK market with its own Avid brand of complex powered rehab wheelchairs, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I am now the UK manager for Merits, establishing Merits brands in the UK with one eye on Europe, and I still get to work with our engineering and research & development teams in Taiwan and the USA.”
Merits Health Products Co. is a Taiwanese-owned company founded by Larry Cheng in 1986 because his mother required a wheelchair, and he thought he could design and build a wheelchair that could meet his mother’s specific needs better than the wheelchairs available in Taiwan at that time.
Since then, the company has grown to become a global corporation with operations in Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the US, and, from April 2024, the UK.
The current range in the UK includes the Avid brand Axcel and Axcel Narrow, which Frank states is the narrowest front-wheel-drive wheelchair on sale in the UK; the Velocity, the firm’s premium mid-wheel-drive fully featured rehab wheelchair; and the Merits Ultra Mid, the company’s entry-point rehab model that is still highly capable and feature-packed.
The P326e Vision Sport wheelchair launched in the UK at this year’s Naidex.
“It received a lot of attention for its comfortable and easily accessible seating, high manoeuvrability, and good looks,” Frank commented.
Merits Health Products UK recently introduced its Pilot range of stairlifts in the UK. Additionally, the firm has just announced the acquisition of Aergo Health and its patented Air Cell Seating Technology. By focusing on healthy and functional seated posture, Aergo solutions help reduce pain and prevent pressure ulcers.
Frank described the company’s ethos and commitment to high-quality solutions: “At Merits we believe in ‘enhancing life through mobility’. We strive to enable independence and accessibility for all, by providing life-enhancing quality solutions that support people in living their life to the fullest.
“The Merits Health Products logo, consisting of four red hearts, is a symbol of our commitment to provide products second to none. The four red hearts represent faithfulness, caring, love, and untiring determination toward our goal of enhancing human life. We commit to continue our efforts in providing the best possible products and services available at a competitive cost to our customers.”
Merits Health Products is driven to improve lives – every day, all over the world – by making high-quality manual wheelchair, powerchair, rehab powerchair, mobility scooter, accessibility, patient aid, stairlift, and seating & positioning products.
The company provides reliable, expertly engineered solutions for nearly every need. Its innovative designs constitute years of experience and research to fully understand the specific needs of individuals.
“Through years of consultations, personal contacts, and studies, Merits Health Products has adapted every way conceivable to satisfy our customers efficiently with quality and professionalism,” continued Frank.”
Merits Health Products UK has also enhanced laboratory testing capabilities to help customers solve quality challenges and improve product reliability.
The function of the in-house laboratory is not only to meet the test standards and regulations but also to take into account the customer’s reasonable use habits to verify the quality of the firm’s products and to gain the trust of distributors and the trust of end-users in its quality.
Even though it is part of a global corporation, Merits Health Products UK faces the same challenges as any new start-up company.
Frank stated: “The world is a rapidly changing place right now.
“We have ships having to avoid the Suez Canal because of the threat of missile attacks, adding cost and time to supply chains. The growing threat of a trade war through the implementation of tariffs.
“It is beyond us as a company to avoid these global issues, but our global footprint allows us to manufacture our products in the right locations to minimise the impact such issues have on everyone.”
Merits Health Products UK believes it has the right products for the UK market and is now working to build a network of dealers to represent it across the UK. This is so that users everywhere can have access to its products in the knowledge that they have a local dealer supported by a multinational mobility company that believed in making a difference to people’s lives.
Merits Health Products UK is looking to expand its current product range. It already has in development new powerchairs that have been designed specifically for the UK market to cope with the infrastructure challenges that exist in the UK and Europe.
The plan is to launch these products at Rehacare in September, where the company will have a large stand with Merits Health Products employees from around the world. At Rehacare, the company will further exhibit a wide variety of products from its different brands.
The BHTA is a trade association in the healthcare and assistive technologies arena, working on behalf of its members to improve industry standards and consumer protection. With more than 400 members of retailers, installers, service providers, distributors, and manufacturers, this represents many of the current and future companies Merits Health Products UK wants to work with and as its customers.
“What better way to demonstrate to them the standards and values we believe in than to join a trade association that they are also members of?” Frank explained.
Merits Health Products UK believes that being a member of the BHTA demonstrates to the mobility sector that it is a moral company with high ethical standards that can be a trusted supplier to their business.
Being a part of the BHTA means that the company has to conform to the BHTA Code of Practice. This code ensures that the mobility and healthcare community who need Merits Health Products UK’s products can trust that the company is professional, ethical, and has their best interests at heart.
Frank highlighted another important benefit of being a BHTA member: “We also recognised strong BHTA membership provides an opportunity for its members to interact and engage with regulatory and standards-setting bodies, both domestic and international, and to be a part of the BHTA’s activities, improving standards for the provision of quality healthcare and assistive technology products and services.”
Merits Health Products UK plans to attend the Future of Medtech conference on the 13th of May in Northampton, as the company sees immense value in the potential to introduce new technological innovations, such as the IoT.
The firm also plans to attend the South West Regional Networking event in Bristol on the 8th May, where it hopes to find out other members’ interests and what they require from a supplier like Merits Health Products UK.
To find out more about how the BHTA can support your business and how to become a BHTA member, visit this page.