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Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition No.3, 2017

8 BUSINESS Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition | 3/2017 Continuing acquisition will be a strategy for larger key competitors An interview with Jeff Wong, Strategic Analyst Manager at iData The ever-progressing digitalisation, changing regulations and a ten- dency towards mergers are cur- rently shaping the dental industry. At the International Dental Show (IDS) in Cologne, Dental Tribune met with Jeff Wong, Strategic Ana- lyst Manager at international med- ical market research and consulting firm iData, to talk about how—ma- jor and emerging—competitors have reacted to these trends. everybody is trying to get into that market now. On the product side, I would say it is 3-D printing and intra-oral scanning. Three or four years ago, there was only a hand- ful of competitors in both of those areas. This year at IDS, almost everybody was presenting some new product in these fields— knowing how fast these markets develop, everybody wants to par- ticipate. Dental Tribune: Digitalisation is one of the main trends that is changing the industry. Other than that, what developments are dominating the dental market? Jeff Wong: Yes, digitalisation is still the up-and-coming trend and What consequences will this have for the market in general? Especially in these two areas, where the level of imitation is high, with so many competitors, it will definitely start diluting the market shares among the existing companies. However, if these par- ticipants start focusing on specific regions or niche audiences, I think there will still be a great deal of benefit. What about the recent merger trend—is that something we will see more of in the future? From what we have seen in other industries, we definitely predict that the trend will con- tinue. Of course, there will always be a couple of smaller companies that will end up becoming fairly large themselves and remain in- dependent. However, we expect that many of the successful emerging companies will be ac- quired at some point. One advan- AD THERE’S MORE TO THIS... ...THAN MEETS THE EYE REGISTER FOR YOUR FREE PLACES NOW: ONLINE: THEDENTISTRYSHOW.CO.UK/DT tage that the larger competitors have is the amount of resources they have. They can always stay ahead of the curve. If they see somebody come to the market with something unique, they have the resources to quickly develop a product of their own. continuing acquisition. However, the strategy of some of the larger regional companies, for example in Brazil, is to continue going and to expand their global presence instead of being acquired. In addition, many of the cur- rent key participants—with the © Kristin Huebner, DTI What role do the emerging mar- kets play? What regions will be- come more significant in the fu- ture? Regarding digital dentistry, I would say much of the develop- ment is linked to implantology and prosthodontics. The key coun- tries where those areas are big as well are Brazil and Italy. Even though the penetration of digital dentistry might be relatively higher in those areas compared with others, I would say they have the greatest opportunities for growth. What are the main trends in im- plantology? In terms of implants, dozens of new companies are popping up every year, but many are also ei- ther acquired or close down. There are definitely certain regions that are experiencing a great deal of growth, for example many Asian countries. At the same time, tradi- tional markets such as Italy, Brazil and the US are doing very well. These markets are well penetrated at this point, so in terms of market growth it will definitely slow down. However, there is still sub- stantial growth opportunity for the competitors, while the traditional premium brands will see considerable com- petition from other markets. lower-priced Do you think this will lead to those companies buying local competi- tors? Or what will their strategy to succeed be? regional regulations changing from country to country—are be- ing forced to acquire new compa- nies in order to be able to operate in the region. So, you are saying that larger com- panies are looking for smaller busi- nesses to acquire in order to bring new technology to market? Not only on the technology side, but also to compete on the pricing level as well. In the current political climate, the Chairman of the Association of the German Dental Industry has issued a warning about protectionism and trade barriers. What are companies doing in this regard? At this stage, I think, compa- nies are mainly waiting to see what will happen. Nevertheless, in light of what is happening in other industries regarding the whole Brexit issue—for example, European Union chiefs have warned airlines, including easyJet and Ryanair, to relocate their headquarters to the EU if they wish to continue their routes within continental Europe after the Brexit—if that can happen in the airline industry, who is to say it cannot happen in the dental in- dustry. Again, for example in Mexico, which has a major dental tourism industry, if that is going to be affected in terms of proce- dural volumes, it is definitely go- ing to affect the dental manufac- turers as well. I think the strategy of most of the larger key competitors will be Thank you very much for the inter- view.

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