Henry Schein welcomes Halas to the team

The world's largest retailer of dental products, US-based Henry Schein, Inc. has acquired both Halas and Shalfoon Dental from Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (API) (ASX:API) for a maximum of $19.75 million. The move follows several months of speculation as API moves to divest itself of non-core assets to concentrate on pharmaceutical sales, distribution and manufacturing.

Henry Schein already has a strong presence in the Australian market through joint ventures Henry Schein Regional (HSR), acquired in 1998 and Protec Dental Technologies, setup in 2004 to market Hoya ConBio dental lasers and other high tech dental products.

"Halas and Shalfoon are very well known and well respected brands that operate very successfully," Mr Stang said. "So it is essentially business as usual at Halas with the same management, the same staff and the same sales and service infrastructure.

"We are essentially different businesses representing different agencies and we have different strengths and it is these differences that have allowed us both to thrive in a competitive market.

"Where the changes will come is that Halas and Shalfoon are now part of the international operations of Henry Schein Inc. and this will see a significant investment made in the company in terms of staff training and resources that will allow it to achieve strong growth.

"This will allow Halas and Shalfoon to access a complete range of diverse products they can bring to dentists in Australia and it will give them a much broader offering. They will get stronger by sticking to their roots and maintaining their own identity. Halas and Shalfoon are major brands and the objective is for them to grow and expand."

Mr Stang said that Henry Schein already operated businesses in other markets that actively competed against each other. Worldwide, the group has operations in 19 countries and distributes to 125.

Halas will remain under the leadership of General Manager Andrew Hoggard and Gail Stewart will remain as Shalfoon General Manager.

"We are extremely pleased to become part of the Henry Schein family of companies," Mr Hoggard said. "Everyone involved recognizes the great benefit of combining the local expertise of Halas and Shalfoon with the global resources and reputation of Henry Schein, an international leader in dental and other healthcare products and services, including premier technology products. These companies share a common commitment to our customers and we look forward to enhancing our offering as we work in tandem with each other."

"Halas has not been owned by a dental company since 1987," said Armin Roth, Senior Director at Halas, "so it's good to be under the umbrella of an organisation that intimately understands our business and the challenges we face. I am comfortable that going forward, this is the best possible outcome for the group that will preserve and indeed strengthen the Halas name in the market."

Mr Stang said that Henry Schein globally fosters social responsibility and now that the company had a critical mass in the local market, it would begin to bring successful programmes from overseas to Australia. This would include staff training programmes through the Schein University that would allow local members of Team Schein to benefit from formalised education in customer service and support.

In the US, among other community minded projects, the company has so far organised free dental treatment for over one million kids and sponsors a back to school programme for under privileged children. As an initial step in the local markets, a percentage of all sales from Halas and Shalfoon in the month of May are being donated to a charity nominated by the ADA and the NZDA respectively.

"Halas will be able to bring a range of benefits to the local market that were previously only available in North America and Europe. This will not only give our clients a broad choice of the best products from around the world at competitive prices, it will also give them unprecedented support at every level of their professional lives and beyond.

"With the support of Henry Schein, Halas will effectively be a direct conduit for the greatest dental technologies of the 21st century to be brought to Australia and New Zealand," said Andrew Hoggard, General Manager of Halas.

"Halas and Shalfoon have enjoyed a long and successful heritage of ownership and operation in Australia and New Zealand, resulting in strong brand identity, numerous product exclusives and an excellent customer base," said Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Henry Schein, Inc. "With this acquisition and Henry Schein's existing Australian operations, we are firmly positioned as a leading dental distributor in these two countries, offering a wide selection of products and service designed to help practitioners operate more efficient and profitable practices while delivering high-quality dental care."

Henry Schein grew his small chemist shop that he owned in the 1930's that operated under the policy of "No person who comes through these doors will have to choose between food and medicine" to be the father of generic drugs. His namesake Henry Schein, Inc is now a publicly listed (Nasdaq NM: HSIC) Fortune 500 company supplying the Dental, Medical and Veterinary markets with an inventory of over 160,000 products. The Company's sales reached a record US$4.1 billion in 2004.