His customers keep changing his products.

• Position: Wearever Health Care Products' founder Joe Ravella - People

Most people don't like getting older. But Rougemont entrepreneur Joe Ravella is mighty glad it happens, at least to everyone else. The elderly are the nation's fastest-growing demographic, and they're buying more and more diapers. Or as his company, Wearever Health Care Products, refers to them, "incontinence products."

Wearever claims its men's briefs and floral-print women's panties "offer protection with dignity" because they don't look like diapers. They sell for around $10 and are good for about 200 washes, Ravella says. The company is also coming out with tennis shorts, bathing suits and boxers. "We don't want to put our parents in diapers," Ravella explains.

A study by New York-based market analyst Frost & Sullivan reports that 12 million Americans suffer from incontinence. It predicts the disposable- and much-smaller reusable-diaper markets will grow at 9% and 8% a year through 2001. Combined, it's a $566 million-a-year market for manufacturers.

Wearever was incorporated in March. But its Pittsburgh-born president has been in sales and marketing since he got out of Bethany College in 1970. He worked for Xerox, then computer-network company Control Data Systems, first in Pittsburgh and then in Southfield, Mich. In 1981, he started a computer-services company, Secom General Corp., and moved it to Chapel Hill when it bought...