Manufacturer’s Spotlight Chris Mc Loone
Osage Ambulances, which celebrated its 40th year in business during 2023, is a company that prides itself on listening to the needs of its customers and working with them on what the company can accomplish for them. Editor in Chief Chris Mc Loone recently spoke with Paul Marshal, manager, sales and marketing, about these values and what might be coming down the pike at the company.
CM: Please provide a brief history of Osage Ambulances.
PM: What is now Osage Ambulances was founded in 1983 as Osage Vans, which built personal use conversion vans, and became Osage Industries. In 1985, the company began building Type 2 ambulances, and in 1992 it expanded as an ambulance manufacturer with the addition of modular ambulances, Type 1 ambulances, and Type 3 ambulances. In 2001, the company dropped the conversion van product because of declining demand. At that time, Osage began doing ambulance remounts. New ambulances and ambulance remounts have been the exclusive product offerings by Osage since that time.
Ambulances are sold through a network of licensed domestic dealers covering 45 states. We have a facility that is more than 120,000 square feet in size, which gives us the capability to produce approximately 280 custom ambulances per year and provides the opportunity for growth. While we handle our business like a family, we do have a lot of employees. At Osage Ambulances, we are proud to employ more than 125 mid-Missourians and are equally proud of the fact that our average tenure is nearly 20 years. Our business is located in Osage County, Missouri, which is about 100 miles west of St. Louis.
CM: How has Osage kept up with demand in light of supply chain issues?
PM: The credit for being able to maintain our production numbers without interruption through all the issues goes to our purchasing people and the relationships they have with all our suppliers. It has not been easy, by any means, but working very closely in a positive way with all the companies we rely on for what we need to build our product has paid off and kept us working through all the issues.
CM: What’s new at Osage Ambulances?
PM: Osage is very committed to our ambulance remount business and was very proud to announce the completion of our new Remount Center, which became fully operational in July 2022. This allows us the opportunity to grow our production capacity to better meet the growth in demand for ambulances to be remounted.
CM: What makes Osage unique?
PM: “Custom Is Standard” at Osage. We tell customers that if they didn’t get it, it’s because they didn’t ask for it. From the simple basic ambulance to the loaded-with-options high-end ambulance, we will do our best to provide the customers with what they want. This applies to all our product offerings: Types 1, 2, 3, and remounts.
CM: What keeps you awake at night?
PM: With absolutely unprecedented demand for new ambulances and the uncertainty of our costs coupled with continued supply chain issues, will we be making money on what we quote today but build and deliver so far into the future? What a challenge—and one that is critical to the well-being of our company and the security of our most valued employees.
