Biolase plans to expand Biolase Europe to include a direct sales force, along with service and support operations, for the German market.
The increased operations will support the rapid growth of dental lasers in emerging markets in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, according to the company.
Located in Floss, Germany, the existing 16,000-sq-ft facility is owned by the company and is fully certified to manufacture and service all models of Biolase lasers.
Sales of all-tissue lasers in Germany and several other countries under exclusive distribution arrangements have lagged other countries in Europe and were below company goals, according to CEO Federico Pignatelli.
"After a thorough review, we have chosen to adopt the same type of direct and multidistributor sales model in Germany that we recently successfully implemented in North America in September 2010," he said. "This model rapidly returned our North American operations to strong sales growth and renewed profitability."
France, Spain, Italy, England, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Australia, and New Zealand also will become nonexclusive distributor territories, pending satisfactory performance discussions on an individual country-by-country basis, Pignatelli noted. Biolase will continue to sell through its current distribution channels in all other international markets.
