New Contract Opens Germany and Strengthens Aircraft’s Foundation in Europe (Press Release)
Posted on Sat 1st November 2008
EDINBURGH, NOV 1, 2008 - Aircraft Medical (the “Company”), the UK medical devices company has completed its goal of securing distribution contracts to cover all key European markets several months ahead of schedule. The company has recently signed a five year distribution agreement with The Surgical Company GmbH to cover Germany. The deal could generate in excess of £6m over the five year period.
Germany is the largest economy in Europe with over 1,600 hospitals with anaesthetic departments serving 82.5 million people and is instrumental to Aircraft Medical's future growth strategy. The Surgical Company will expand its sales team to develop the German market and Aircraft Medical will contribute its own marketing resources to support the venture.
Now connected across Europe, Aircraft is aligned with well established partners with influence at the local and national levels across the region and in particular the specialist anaesthesia markets. With more than 7,000 acute hospitals Europe has a high per capita healthcare spend and has seen steady growth in the high end medical device sector and particularly medical disposables.
Word-of-mouth referrals between medical peers within specialist anaesthesia markets are already making an important contribution to the launch of the Series 5, particularly within some of the leading European opinion groups. Many clinical assessments have already been published by key European centres with encouraging results for the Series 5. In combination with an increasing body of academic evidence and peer to peer referrals, the Series 5 will be exhibited at around 100 scientific meetings throughout Europe in 2009.
David Bowie, Head of Sales & Marketing at Aircraft Medical commented:
“Following Aircraft Medical and its distributor’s successes so far in the US, Germany and the rest of the European market are forecast to become major contributors to our revenue. With a specialist sales force and additional resources now in place we have an excellent platform to grow our business in Europe”.
Frank de Vos, Managing Director of Surgical Company GmbH added:
“Having worked with Aircraft Medical in both France and the BeNeLux countries, we are delighted to be partnering with them again. Germany has a lot of domestic expertise in the medical equipment market, but we are experiencing a growing demand amongst our customers for the McGrath®. The device is a clear leader in its market”.