European VP Says U.S. Laboratories Asked DENTSPLY for Offshore Laboratory Service
European VP Says U.S. Laboratories Asked DENTSPLY for Offshore Laboratory Service
DENTSPLY International officials find themselves answering the concerns of European laboratory owners after DENTSPLY Prosthetics announced it was partnering with a laboratory in China to provide offshore outsourcing services to its U.S. laboratory customers (read related story here). In an e-mail to its members, the Federation of European and International Dental Laboratories (FEPPD) shared the results of a recent meeting with DeguDent and DENTSPLY International officials. DeguDent is a member of the DENTSPLY International Group.
"As it is one of FEPPD's goals to provide accurate and reliable information to its member federations, we contacted the DeguDent headquarters in Germany and asked for a meeting with Dr. Sterkenburg and Mr. Schwafert," wrote FEPPD President J¸rgen Schwichtenberg and Chief Executive Nancy Paulussen in the e-mail. "During this meeting, which took place on the 3rd of April, we expressed our worries and confronted them with the information we received from our member federations. DeguDent took our remarks very seriously and expressed the importance dental technicians have for their company. Enclosed you will find an official statement of DeguDent concerning their overseas policy."
Below is a copy of the statement from DeguDent that FEPPD sent its members:
Press Release
U.S. laboratories keen to cooperate with overseas labs:
Albert Sterkenburg, Dentsply International, clarifies: "We are committed to European made Prosthetic restorations"
Albert Sterkenburg, Vice President Global Prosthetics and CEO of DeguDent, Hanau, Germany, recently declared that he fully supports European made prosthetic restorations made by European dental technicians. "We will continue to support European dental laboratories to remain competitive in a growing global economy. As we are one of the largest suppliers to dental laboratories, we are extremely interested in maintaining and extending proven structures,” stated Sterkenburg. "Importing finished dental restorations from low cost countries of the world is not part of our European strategy ñ neither is supplying dentists with finished dental restorations."
This statement was triggered by reports that Dentsply Prosthetics in the U.S.A. had been asked by numerous American labs for access to an offshore dental laboratory. U.S. labs are suffering from price pressure from offshore labs and consequently started looking for alternatives how to continue to serve profitably the lower price segment of the U.S. market. As a service to it’s customers and as a response to these customer requests, Dentsply Prosthetics US started a cooperation with an offshore lab to provide the U.S. based dental technicians with cost effective, fixed prosthetic work. Sterkenburg: "This service is really only available for dental labs in the U.S.A. and not even for the Canadian market. This service will definitely not be available to European laboratories."
“Quite the contrary” Torsten Schwafert, in charge of the DeguDent sales and marketing divisions added: “Our upcoming products and services will present the opportunities we believe are open to European labs for competing with low price dental restorations."
Gerald K. Kunkle, Jr. DENTSPLY International Chairman of the Board and CEO had a salary of $705,000 in 2005 and received a $706,100 bonus, according to a proxy statement sent to stockholders. Read the statement here. Read the annual report for the fiscal year 2005 here.
