MD&DI Interview with Kinamed CEO
February 21, 2012
Overseas sales focus keeps surgical products company operating at high level despite recession, CEO says.
Kinamed’s first overseas sales venture taught Clyde Pratt the importance of offering distinctive merchandise. During that mid-90s foray to Japan, the company’s neurosurgical products faced tough regulatory scrutiny in a device business then rife with consolidation, and Pratt learned an important lesson about its product line, the CEO says.
That focus on “specialty products with their own particular reason for being,” as Pratt puts it, has proved profitable for Kinamed over the ensuing years, according to the executive. The approach attracted an enthusiastic Japanese distribution network, an essential element that has fueled the small company’s successful run in not only Japan but also in China and other foreign markets. Overseas sales account for nearly half of Kinamed’s business, and in 2010 MDDI selected Kinamed as one of its Top 50 companies to watch.
Established in 1987 and based in Camarillo, CA, Kinamed operates partly in a $30-billion orthopedic space that one market research firm says is growing at an annual compound rate of 5% to 7%. Kinamed manufactures instruments and implants for orthopedic and neurosurgery applications. The product line includes the CarboJet CO2 lavage system, the SuperCable IsoElastic Cerclage system, and the KineMatch patello-femoral joint replacement device.