Enztec Finds Fortune in Orthopaedics
The National Business Review, New Zealand

Christchurch orthopaedic devices designer and manufacturer Enztec is widening its global market through a new partnership with Boston company Omni Life Science.

Enztec already has several worldwide production and distribution arrangements with leading US business, driving exports to 95% output.

The new deal, Orthopaedic Synergy, will operate in the Australasian market. Synergy will be the first New Zealand majority owned full-service orthopaedic company in the region through shareholdings by Auckland firm Birnie Capital Partners, which has the major stake in Omni and is an Enztec investor.

The new business will be based in Christchurch as a Centre for Orthopaedic Excellence and could consider a future public listing, according to Enztec chairman David Boyd.

General Manager Stephen O'Neill said his company's future was in its own intellectual property and a product portfolio it could sell to the world.

"It's hard to find the next big thing," Mr O'Neill said, "but we have grown with advances we have made ourselves and through partnerships which quickly gives us channels to markets.

"A lot of our work is in customised hip and knee implants and we are now doing more in other parts of the body.

"We design and make specialised precision instruments a surgeon can trust so an implant will last 15 to 20 years, improving lives by removing pain and providing mobility - and that's a good feeling."

Enztec topped the machinery and equipment manufacturing section in NBR's monthly Exciting Companies series with a rating of 70 in surveys conducted by strategic business consultancy New River.

It was followed by computer silicon chip maker Buckley Systems with 68.4, wind turbine manufacturer Windflow Technology on 65.5, automation materials processing company Integrated Systems Design with 64 and high-tech meat industry equipment provider Scott Automation.

Enztec was started in 1993 by an orthopaedic surgeon who identified problems in procedures and an engineer who found solutions.

"We have grown to 35 staff - big for a medical device company - and with our ambitions for the future that number could double in the next two years," Mr O'Neill said.

"The orthopaedic business is driven by baby boomers coming through, a huge bubble of older people who want to be more active so demand for medical implants will increase."

Enztec in August won the Canterbury Export Awards Deal of the Year Award for its contract with US giant orthopaedic company DePuy International to develop and supply surgical instruments.

A subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, DePuy has an annual turnover of $US4.5 billion and send products throughout the world from its UK distribution centre.

The Omni partnership has over the past few years also provided international market success.

Mr O'Neill said Enztec was having some customised implants manufactured with a new US process which used powdered titanium to form products quickly and accurately rather than cutting them from solid blocks of metal.

"We produce sexy stuff that is functional and looks good while meeting all the medical regulatory requirements," he said. "We like to think we are good at listening and watching surgeons to see easier ways of doing things."

"The industry is becoming quite large and surgeons are sick of the big companies which don't talk to them - we are the listeners, just like the old days."