Smiles Inclusive eyes corporate HQs with mobile dentists in the office car park
Jun 25 2018 at 12:18 PM
Updated Jun 25 2018 at 1:47 PM
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ASX-listed Smiles Inclusive is eyeing the corporate office market as a way of bringing in more customers. It runs five trucks with three dental chairs in each already, which are busy in Victorian schools.
ASX-listed Smiles Inclusive wants to use a fleet of five 14-metre trucks with mobile dental surgeries on-board to tackle the corporate market and drive more customer growth.
Smiles Inclusive chief executive Mike Timoney said on Monday that dentists operating three chairs on each of the five trucks branded Smiles Onsite were now seeing about 350 people a week in schools in Victoria and there were plans to expand into the corporate market using the same business model.
He sees similarities with mobile blood banks in saving patients more time by cutting out travel in Australia's increasingly gridlocked cities.
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"It's as if you are going into a dental surgery," he said. "These are fully functioning chairs."
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Smiles Inclusive, which operates the Totally Smiles brand in 52 traditional bricks and mortar surgeries, listed on the ASX in late April after raising $35 million in a public float where the shares were issued at $1 each. Can Stock Photo Inc / Zurijeta
Smiles Inclusive, which operates the Totally Smiles brand in 52 traditional bricks and mortar surgeries, listed on the ASX in late April after raising $35 million in a public float where the shares were issued at $1 each. But the share price has been fading and now sits around the 96¢ mark.
Mr Timoney said Smiles Inclusive was bringing a new approach to the $10 billion dental industry and investors clearly wanted to see a track record for the group's fresh ideas in what he says is a highly inefficient market.
"I guess people are waiting for how well we pull it all together," Mr Timoney said.
'Huge opportunity'
The company also has plans to expand into servicing sporting clubs and organisations, along with the drive into corporate headquarters.
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The company says a highly competitive jobs market in a world of digital disruption meant that people were increasingly focused on having a dazzling smile to try to set them apart from other candidates. SMH
The ultimate goal was to have a system in place where companies would give their staff vouchers to use in the mobile dental surgeries as a gesture of goodwill.
Plans are on the drawing board to expand the fleet of trucks from five. "We see a huge opportunity in the corporate market."
Smiles Inclusive became the third ASX-listed dentistry group when it hit the boards in April. There are more than 7000 dental practices in Australia but only about 7 to 8 per cent of them are part of large corporate entities.
The other ASX firms have been around for a lot longer in public markets. 1300Smiles, which runs 32 surgeries, listed in 2005, and Pacific Smiles has been a public company since 2014.
Mr Timoney said a highly competitive jobs market in a world of digital disruption meant that people were increasingly focused on having a dazzling smile to try to set them apart from other candidates.
"That Hollywood smile – it helps people to bridge that gap," he said.
Mr Timoney said mobile dental surgeries were a way of making the whole dental system more efficient. Advances in technology meant the service was top rate in a mobile truck.
