B.Braun Medical has defended its position as “the UK’s fastest-growing major healthcare organisation” with reported sales topping £100m for the first time.
The UK arm of the global healthcare giant B.Braun has seen sales leap by 30 per cent during the 2008/09 financial year with all divisions of the company contributing.
The company, with its UK group headquarters in Sheffield, is reaping the rewards from a two-pronged growth strategy of targeted acquisitions and expanding its portfolio of health care products, therapies and services.
CEO Hans Hux said: “Innovation has been the engine of growth. We have successfully continued our strategy of product and service diversification which has strengthened our overall position in the UK market, and within the Group as a whole.
“Last year, 56 per cent of sales were generated from products and services we have introduced in the last five years, such as our state-of-the-art Orthopilot computer navigation system for total knee replacement. The strategic acquisitions we have made are also really paying off, strengthening the overall profitability of the group.”
B.Braun Avitum was created in 2006 with the acquisition of Baxter Healthcare’s renal therapy services business which provides kidney dialysis treatment and services to hundreds of NHS patients.
The company has continued to expand, opening four new renal units during 2008 at Frome, Yeovil, Taunton and Cardiff, taking its total to 15 throughout Britain. Avitum’s major investment in the kidney dialysis sector is set to continue with further units planned to open in 2009.
B.Braun Sterilog Ltd invested £20 million in building, equipping and running state of the art decontamination super centres in Birmingham and Leeds which sterilise surgical instruments used in hospitals throughout the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
The centres both became fully operational during 2008 at the start of fifteen-year contracts, bringing the quality of decontamination and sterilisation services in hospitals up to the latest European standards.
All group companies contributed to the record breaking year, but B.Braun’s contribution to the German-based parent group’s profits has been hit by the fall in the value of sterling. Hans Hux added: “The fact that we are not in the Euro zone has a real impact on our consolidated country results for 2008 as they are reported in Euros.”
A continued focus on innovation and diversification, along with a drive to keep costs under control, will be key to B.Braun Medical’s continued growth in the UK market during 2009.
The company, which now employs 1,250 people, is aiming for a further 12 per cent growth in sales to £120 m, with a substantial improvement in the profitability of the UK group.
Hans Hux added: "The NHS is continuing to invest and the number of operations will not change significantly.“Because we are less dependent on large one-off investment projects and contracts through the strength and diversity of our business, we are very confident about our performance over the next couple of years. We will continue our emphasis on sustainable organic growth in 2009 and are very conscious of the need to keep a tight control on costs, but innovation will remain the key feature of our strategic development.”This will be reflected later this year with the opening of a state-of-the-art unit at Thorncliffe Park which will become the region’s first outsourcing facility for the manufacture and delivery of sterile prescription medication to hospitals. The £2m showcase Aseptic Unit will include a cytotoxic robot - only the second of its kind in the UK – which can manipulate highly toxic and time sensitive medication for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
