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Zimmer Inc. has a long history in Warsaw, but it is a new company in terms of its corporate culture and environment.
That was the message Zimmer president Ray Elliot and John McGoldrick, president of Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Devices Group, had for area media Friday.
"The restructuring in 1996-97 was pretty difficult on the employees in Warsaw," McGoldrick said. "What we've focused on since is performance. This is a tough, tough industry to be successful in."
Zimmer has been successful, however, and since the restructuring has reinvigorated itself with that new focus, he added.
"Zimmer has always been a significant member of the Bristol-Myers Squibb family, and will continue to be into the future," McGoldrick said. "Ray and his leadership team have been responsible for a significant turnaround in the corporate spirit here. We're delighted with Zimmer and its progress."
Elliot said Zimmer has gotten back on track through a recommitment to quality and with that commitment has come positive growth numbers and an eye on widening Zimmer's product line.
"We're growing and we're hiring. We've had an 8 percent gain in market share for hip and knee replacements," Elliot said. "And we're starting to look into other, newly developed areas to expand into - with more than $80 million being invested in new product development."
Among the new product lines under development is a shoulder replacement system, Elliot said. There is also a lot of opportunity in the spinal market that Zimmer may be interested in exploring at a future date.
"Spinal is the fastest growing market in the industry today. But we've elected to focus on knees and hips while continuing to look at spinal," Elliot said. "We still have so much work to do in what we are doing right now."
Both McGoldrick and Elliot expect the recent spate of mergers and consolidations in the medical device industry to continue, but say there are no firm plans for any acquisitions by Zimmer or Bristol-Meyers Squibb on the immediate horizon.
"Will it (the mergers) continue? Yes - but I don't have any answers as to how or when," Elliot said. "But if you're going to merge in any other company, you have to make sure you have everything in-house running perfectly."
The future is bright for Zimmer, Elliot and McGoldrick said, because of the growing number of aged in the United States and internationally, leading to a global increase in demand of joint replacements.
"Age demographics are easy to project. It's the interference factors, such as desire for a particular quality of life, that are harder to see," Elliot said.
"Another factor in that is what is going on globally," McGoldrick said. "We're the predominant firm in Japan. Our market share there is, by far, more than we had assumed."
