Order of Australia for SDI founder

The founder of Australia's best known dental consumables manufacturer, Mr Jeffery Cheetham, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the recent Queen's Birthday Honours for his service to the dental industry through the development, production and export of innovative dental products.

Jeffery Cheetham founded his company, Southern Dental Industries, now known as SDI Limited and publicly traded on the stock market, in 1972 from very humble beginnings with the main intention of replacing imports and perhaps selling overseas. SDI's first product was dental amalgam, a range which continues to have a major world market share.

Mr Cheetham's abundant energy and dedication to improvement has enabled SDI to progress and develop top quality dental materials. Over the years, SDI has aggressively entered the aesthetic market, manufacturing composites, adhesives, tooth whitening products and more recently, glass ionomer products. Mr Cheetham constantly travels the world, promoting SDI and the premium SDI product range. SDI has annual sales of well over $40 million and exports more than 95% of it's production to over 100 countries worldwide. SDI has offices in Brazil, USA, Germany, Ireland and Japan.

Mr Cheetham is an ardent nationalist believing that Australian companies are made to compete worldwide. Whilst SDI is very successful internationally, he believes that Australia needs many more examples of this type of organization and is always willing to advise potential exporters. He also firmly believes in 'Buy Australian Made' products - SDI has a strict policy of sourcing all its materials and components from Australia and as such injects over $20 million annually to local suppliers. SDI has over 200 employees based in Australia and over 50 internationally. Additionally, SDI has a secondary employment of over 400 persons who are employed by vendors who are dependant on SDI with over 30% of their business coming from SDI.

Australasian Dental Practice congratulates Mr Cheetham on this Award and the valuable contribution he continues to make to the dental community.