Dental Tribune Asia Pacific Edition No.5, 2017

08 BUSINESS Dental Tribune Asia Paciﬁ c Edition | 5/2017 Stronger together An interview with Jean-François Tivoly, CEO of the TIVOLY group, and Christian Fontaine, CEO of FFDM Pneumat 1 Fig. 1: The Tivoly family: Jean-François Tivoly, Jamy Tivoly, Edouard Tivoly and Marc Tivoly (from left). By DT France In October 2016, the TIVOLY group acquired the FFDM group. The two companies specialise in the design and production of cutting tools. Both trace their origins to the same familial and industrial cul- ture dating back to the early twen- tieth century. The acquisition is part of TIVOLY’s development strategy, aimed at strengthening its industrial base and consolidat- ing its position in aeronautics and its investments in expanding mar- kets like medical devices. FFDM will beneﬁ t by having a stronger base for its investments, especially in research and development. The aim is to renew and strengthen their respective offerings and to put the THOMAS brand at the fore- front of the dental market, in the context of tightening regulation and increased competition from Asian products. Dental Tribune France met with TIVOLY CEO Jean- François Tivoly and FFDM Pneumat CEO Christian Fontaine. What are the secret ingredients that make a partnership success- ful? Christian Fontaine: The found- ing of both of these family compa- nies was based on a commitment to the service of society. Lucien Ti- voly, for example, built his ﬁ rst factory to manufacture the cut- ting tools essential to the arms in- dustry during the First World War, and FFDM was established during the Second World War. One war may have separated us, but we share common values. Through- out our history, we have always striven for progress and concen- trated our efforts on becoming a centre of excellence regarding our core business. Our teams have the ability to listen and share a spirit of open-mindedness that fuels in- tuition. We are, in fact, creating added value, by using an approach that focuses on adapting our prod- ucts and services to the needs of today’s consumers. Our aim is not simply to anticipate their expecta- tions, but to surpass them. For example, in the era of smartphones, no tool is available to dismantle, clean and repair these devices, so we created a toolkit to address the problem. It is difﬁ cult for dental surgeons to remove posts of any kind from root canals, so FFDM, along with Prof. Pierre Machtou, improved an existing kit, the Gonon kit, which is now used in innumerable dental practices around the world. Whatever the problem, our expertise and knowl- edge of precision tools for the ma- chining of materials can always provide a concrete, tailor-made solution. The exchanges that will inevitably be created between the teams in charge of research and development will deﬁ nitely enable us to serve new markets linked to our craftsman origins. Mr Tivoly, could you brieﬂ y intro- duce us to your company? Jean-François Tivoly: TIVOLY is a family business that was es- tablished in 1917 and has its head- quarters in Savoy. It is a highly international industrial company that designs and manufactures cutting tools (drills, milling cut- ters, taps, etc.) and the related accessories. TIVOLY is a publicly traded company (Euronext) and its annual turnover is € 85 million (one full year with FFDM). TIVOLY is structured around two business units. The ﬁ rst, the consumer unit, supplies tools for the construction, DIY and indus- trial maintenance markets. The second, the industrial unit, offers machining solutions for indus- try, for example the aeronautic and automobile industries. At present, FFDM’s dental offering is part of the industrial unit at group level, but with a view to these ac- tivities being expanded, it seems logical to create a medical unit at group level, encompassing dental products at ﬁ rst, but eventually including all of the other areas we have planned for the future. TIVOLY is aiming for strong growth, strengthened over the next few years by its products and international positioning. To speed this growth up further, TIVOLY making other acquisitions is a possibility, on condition that these are part of its strategy. Which indicators make you believe medicine is the ﬁ eld of the future? Tivoly: Dentistry, which is an FFDM specialty, is part of the broader ﬁ eld of medicine. Glob- ally, it is widely believed that this area will continue growing. In- deed, populations always con- tinue to increase in number and age. In many areas, such as India, Africa and China—where we have a factory—living standards are improving, and as the proportion of income spent on necessities de- creases, more income is left over to invest in health. However, there is strong com- petition in the medical equipment ﬁ eld, with many companies of vari- ous sizes—some quite modest—in France. The market and technolo- 2 2 3 Fig. 2: Grinding and sharpening of an FFDM implant drill.—Fig. 3: Production of implant drills.

Dental Tribune Asia Pacific Edition No.5, 2017

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