Factory direct support for Sirona sales and service

Sirona Pty Ltd in Australia and Sirona Dental Systems Ltd in New Zealand have officially taken over responsibility for sales and service of the entire Sirona product range. All inquiries regarding Sirona equipment should be directed to the new organisations whether that be new product sales or service of existing equipment.

"Since Sirona Dental Systems in Germany decided to establish a direct sales channel in Australia and New Zealand late last year, we have been very busy establishing the necessary infrastructure to enable this," said Sirona Pty Ltd director Tim Carse. "We want to provide our customers, present and future, with the very best service and support and this has required considerable planning and investment in the local market.

"Opening our doors for business on May 16 was a very exciting occasion and the Sirona team is now looking forward to working more closely with our customers and the dental community to strengthen our relationships and consolidate our position of market leadership."

Sirona has so far employed 45 familiar faces from the dental industry including 24 service staff and 14 sales consultants. Team leaders are in place for each state and product specialists have been appointed. Morné Cheetham, also a director of the company, is looking after CEREC; Quentin Daniels is managing the company's inEos and inLab laboratory systems; and Mark Burns is the product manager for instruments and hygiene.

Six state-of-the-art showrooms, located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland are in the process of opening.

The structure of the business has a heavy emphasis on technical service support, with staffing levels and associated resources reflecting this.

Internationally, ownership of the Sirona Group has recently changed, with management of the company increasing its stake in the operation and US-based private equity investment firm Madison Dearborn acquiring the remaining shares previously held by investment fund EQT.

In 1997, Sirona was carved out from the medical division of the Siemens Group in the largest private equity buyout in Germany at that time. Since then, the company has shown strong growth. Between the financial years 1997/98 and 2003/04, sales increased from 200 to 320 million Euros. The number of employees rose from around 1,200 to the current figure of 1,600. The company has significantly expanded its global presence in recent years. Sales outside of Germany reached 229 million Euros last year. EBITDA last year was 71 Million Euros.

Madison Dearborn Partners is one of the largest private equity investors in the US. The current fund volume amounts to approximately 8 billion US dollars.