Hi,
Just wanted to post the actual article from Robs link....
I am at a loss for words on this move. Jensen says he's not in competition, then describes how he competes. Idiot.
Manufacturer or Competitor?
By Cassandra Corcoran
DENTSPLY Prosthetics officials set the dental laboratory industry abuzz when they announced the company had invested in a Chinese dental laboratory and would begin offering finished restorations to its U.S. dental laboratory customers. DENTSPLY did not buy Prident International Inc., outright, but instead became a partner by investing a significant amount of money into Prident. DENTSPLY officials refused to disclose how much of an interest the company owns in the laboratory, but said it is enough that DENTSPLY has a significant impact on the material used and the quality of restorations produced.
Reaction to DENTSPLY’s move was swift. Within a week of the announcement at the CAL Lab meeting during the Chicago Midwinter Meetings, the industry’s only publicly traded chain of dental laboratories severed ties with DENTSPLY Prosthetics. National Dentex criticized Dentply’s move as going from manufacturer to competitor.
“National Dentex does not believe DENTSPLY's action of making finished product in China and distributing it in the United States is in the best interests of the U. S. based dental laboratory industry. Our issue is not offshore,” said National Dentex President and CEO Dave Brown. “Our issue is with a major dental manufacturer that we have all supported for years, entering our area of the dental industry. We have over 1,900 employees at 41 laboratories in the United States and we believe that DENTSPLY’s action jeopardizes their livelihood. In response to these concerns, National Dentex believes that to continue to do business with DENTSPLY would in effect support their actions. We, therefore, have decided to cease doing any further business with DENTSPLY.”
National Dentex, which reported $136 million in sales last year, is not the only laboratory to walk away from DENTSPLY. BonaDent, which has 150 employees, is replacing DENTSPLY products with those of other manufacturers, according to Daniele Bonafiglia Wirth, BonaDent’s director of finance. Bruce Bonafiglia, CDT, who owns BonaDent and Danaren Dental Laboratory, has been a loud voice arguing against U.S. laboratories not disclosing that a restoration has been manufactured offshore. However, the laboratories would have stopped using DENTSPLY’s products even if the company had chosen to buy a laboratory in the U.S.
“Whether DENTSPLY opened a lab in China, Mexico or St. Louis, we would not support them. We don't buy products from a company/manufacturer that we also compete with,” said Bonafiglia Wirth. “DENTSPLY entering the laboratory business is in direct competition with what we do.”
DENTSPLY Prosthetics Vice President and General Manager Steve Jenson argues that the DENTSPLY laboratory will not compete with U.S. dental laboratories. The DENTSPLY laboratory will act as an outsource laboratory providing high quality restorations made with 510K-compliant materials at a low cost to DENTSPLY’s U.S. dental laboratory customers. The laboratory will only offer finished PFMs, cast crown and bridges and Vitallium® partials. The outsourcing service will not include Cercon® and Trubyte® products in completed full or processed partial dentures.
