CEREC bulk buy savings passed onto clients

CEREC Australia manager, Morné Cheetham, has received authorisation to begin bulk purchasing CEREC 3D systems from Sirona in Germany following a management restructuring at Australia's largest dental retailer.

"In the past, we've only been able to purchase CEREC's in an ad hoc fashion based on demand, keeping only a few in stock," Mr Cheetham said. "We now have approval to go ahead and bulk purchase units. This has meant that we have been able to negotiate a much better price."

A full CEREC 3D chairside ceramic restoration system now retails for $151,800 including GST. This is comprised of the unit cost of $129,800 ($118,000 + 10% GST) plus a mandatory 'Australasian Service Pack' of $22,000.

"We now have over 300 CEREC's installed in Australia and New Zealand and 360 dentists using the system. The level of demand doesn't appear to be abating and while CEREC is very much a product that should be purchased based on its value to the practice rather than its cost to purchase, we do believe in passing on any savings we can which may help with the decision to buy in.

"Ultimately, it is also a win for our existing clients too, who will benefit from new users coming into the group which gives us greater scope for more training activities and increased levels of after sales service and support.

"CEREC is a very complex piece of dental equipment that uses state-of-the-art technology to make it as simple as possible for dentists to use all its features. The role of the CEREC Group at Halas really begins once you have bought the system as we need to ensure that everyone is fully trained on its use and supported on an ongoing basis well after cheques have changed hands. The more users we have, the more resources we can devote to this process."

Mr Cheetham said that pricing would be reviewed as each batch was sold but would remain at this level for the time being.