Since 1969, Healthmark Industries Company, Inc. has developed and marketed innovative solutions to aid healthcare facilities in their delivery of surgical instruments and other lifesaving medical devices to patients.
Healthmark Industries, a family-owned healthcare supplier located in Fraser, Michigan, is celebrating its 50th year in business in 2019. Healthmark now employs more than 200 people and has recently moved into a 100,000-square-foot headquarters in Fraser.
Ralph A. Basile and his wife, Suzanne, established Healthmark in 1969 in Grosse Pointe. After a successful career in medical sales, Ralph decided to start his own company. In the early days, Healthmark was operated out of the family home, for their first-generation products.
After a few years of success and growing business, Healthmark moved to its first “real” office on the corner of Mack Avenue and Harvard Road in Grosse Pointe Park. Continued success led to the need for a larger facility, and in 1979 Healthmark moved to a building on 9 Mile between Mack and Jefferson in St. Clair Shores.
Right from the start, Healthmark operated as a family business. Sons Ralph, Mark, and Steve were among Healthmark’s first “employees,” stamping literature with the company information on a pay-for-piece basis. Ralph jokes that he still has paper cuts from those days.
Later on, each of the sons, at different times and with different prior experiences, joined the family business and helped grow it. Healthmark’s founder and patriarch, Ralph A. Basile, passed away in 2001 after a battle with cancer. Through the efforts of his wife, three sons, grandchildren, and many loyal employees, the company has continued to grow.
Currently the company is run by Ralph and Suzanne’s three sons, Ralph, Mark, and Steve, with Suzanne still very much involved. Grandson Daniel Basile and wife, Theresa, recently joined the company, as did granddaughter Ashlynn Basile, continuing Healthmark as a third-generation family business.
Suzanne Basile reflects fondly on the past and is excited to see what the future brings for Healthmark.
“I thank my sons and our wonderful employees who have carried on the legacy of our great company so beautifully, and now it is our grandchildren’s turn to carry Healthmark forward into the future, meeting the needs of our customers as we have always strived to do,” Basile said.
