Mexico and India among new markets for dental implant firm EthOSS as it continues global growth

The company operates in more than 65 countries worldwide, increasing its export markets by more than 60 per cent over the last five years to include Australia, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Sweden.

Exports now accounting for 65 per cent of its £4m turnover.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, dental implantologist Dr Peter Fairbairn, co-founder of EthOss, said: “The growth of our exports is determined by the quality of our distributers there. Anyone can make a product. It can be the best product by a long way but it’ll sit on the shelf unless you have someone who is knowlegable and motivated to sell it.”

The US and China are also on the hit list but they both have their own regulatory procedures and it can take years to gain approval.

Growing sales is the main focus area for EthOss, which was launched in 2013.

"We’re still in a very young stage of the business,” Mr Wheeler said. “We’re nowhere near reaching full potential in any of our markets so we’re focusing on education and training, and growth on the back of that.

"We put a lot of effort into lectures and webinars,” he added. “We’ve just launched a new online training portal called EdgeX, which is built around what dentists want. They’re very time poor so it’s short, sharp interventions rather than watch this two-hour-long lecture.”

The rapid growth of social media also boosted the company’s profile and customer base. Its Facebook group has 12,000 members. “It’s been a great way to communicate directly with an audience and share what’s going on in the real world,” Mr Wheeler said.

The challenges for the business come from regulation and product registrations. “They’re not unique to us – all businesses in our sector face them – but they’re arguably worse for a small business because we can’t go and employ two dozen regulatory experts to run a team like a larger company could,” Mr Wheeler said.

In the short term, the company is developing new syringe systems and a slightly different version of the EthOss material with larger particles that can be used in bigger cases, for example oral cancer patients.

The directors’ aim for the business is to become the leading global player in the synthetic bone grafting oral surgery market and eventually move into different areas of clinical application.

"There are lots of bone grafting done in other parts of the body in things like orthopaedics. There is so much potential out there for us,” said Mr Wheeler.

The main competitor products in the market are made from deceased cows, which are covered in a collagen membrane, made from pigs, to stop the body rejecting it.

"The Middle East is another big target market for us because there’s a real move towards synthetic products, like EthOss, there,” Mr Wheeler said. But in most parts of the world as people embrace vegetarianism and veganism they are looking for more ethical treatments and there is huge potential.”