In our final instalment of " Diary of an Exporter ," we bring Clinotech's story up to the present day. Only eight years after its founding, the company has become an international success, with its own factory in Canada and dozens of markets around the world. Here's how the business has grown since we last looked into Dr. Ofiyai's diary?

By Dennis and Sandi Jones


Early 2003
I'm happy to say the year is off to a good start. I've followed up on the leads we got at the MEDICA trade show in Germany last November, about doing contract manufacturing for medical supply companies in the United States and Europe. I zeroed in on the ones that are a good fit with our product line and that can provide us with the profit margins we need, and as a result we'll soon be manufacturing products for two U.S. companies and an Italian firm.

Even better, we still have plenty of production capacity, enough to meet our contract manufacturing commitments and supply our current distributors as well. So I won't have to say no to new orders, just as long as we can meet the client's delivery and technical expectations. This also means I can keep looking for new distributors. We have more than 30 of them now, in 30 countries, but that's no reason to stop!

Spring 2003
I've been keeping busy, not just with looking for new markets, but also with our quality management team, our business development group and our marketing group. Senay, my wife and business partner, has been working directly with the production group and is also involved in quality control and assurance, along with overseeing the purchasing of raw materials.

Despite being busy, though, I've been keeping an eye on our older markets. I like to pay close attention to our distributors there, not just because they've been working with us for years and know our products, but because I can keep track of whether they're meeting our expectations. That's really important if we've given them an exclusive distributorship. If we find out they're not performing, and we can't resolve the problem, we can make them non-exclusive distributors and then find other distributors in that market.

We've also discovered that when we go into a new market, we're often asked for exclusivity. When we were starting up, I avoided agreeing to that kind of arrangement. But nowadays, if I can be satisfied that a distributor can do everything we need in a particular market, it can work well. But I always ask for at least a three-year business proposal based on minimum sales volumes. If that passes review, we can let the company act as our sole distributor in that market - as long as they meet expectations!

June 2003
Our lease on this building ends in December, and I've decided it's time we bought our own factory. I can't see us building a new place from the foundation up, so I'm going to find an existing one that we can adapt to our needs. Next step: start looking into costs and financing.

November 2003
Well, I've completed the purchase of our first factory building, and we'll be moving in at the beginning of 2004. Getting financing was no trouble at all - the BMO Bank of Montreal said that Clinotech's sales and growth justified buying a building, so we should go ahead, and we did. Better yet, the new place is twice as big as the old one, so we'll have plenty of expansion room.

Winter 2004
We're in our factory now and the production line is humming along. Now that the move's complete, I've had some time to look at a new market area: Africa. Communications have improved there during the past few years, which makes it a much better prospect than it was, so I'm working with my contacts to find some possible distributors. We'll see what happens.

I was talking a while ago to Rakesh Vig, our Relationship Manager at the BMO Bank of Montreal, about Clinotech's progress. He suggested we could offer more purchasing options to our distributors if we used the services of EDC - deferred payment options, for example. It's something I'll definitely have to look into when I can find the time. I'm even busier than usual at the moment.

Spring 2004
EDC in Ottawa recently sent me an information package, which has reminded me of the conversation I had last winter with Mr. Vig. I think Clinotech could use EDC's services, so I've completed the forms and sent them back. I've also asked if I could deal with the local Vancouver office, which would be more convenient from my point of view.

Summer 2004
I've now been in touch with the EDC Business Development Manager in the Vancouver office, Bryan Hughes. We had a long discussion and I'm convinced that EDC could be useful to Clinotech, especially its Pre-shipment Financing. If we qualify for it, we can let our distributors defer their payments until their shipments arrive, and that would make them very happy. They could also increase the size of their orders, which would obviously be good for Clinotech. It would work out well for everybody. I'm definitely going to pursue this.

November 2004
We're now working with EDC! We've set up our first pre-shipment financing arrangement, which is certain to bring us new customers, and I'm sure a lot of our clients will increase the size of their accounts as well. We also qualify for Accounts Receivable Insurance, and that will keep us out of trouble if one of our distributors gets into financial difficulties. All this means that Clinotech can grow even faster than I'd hoped. And that's important, because we've got distributors in Africa now and we're expanding into Southeast Asia, too.

Early 2005
Our new markets in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have been picking up very rapidly. As well as attending to those, I'm increasingly involved in refining our quality management system so we can get the updated versions of ISO 13485 and CE certification for In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Medical Devices this year. That's keeping us all busy, including Senay, because the ISO standards affect everything we do - who we use to supply raw materials, how our production line works, how we market, even how we pack our products for shipping. But we're making excellent progress.

Summer 2005
I thought I'd take a moment and look back at what's happened since I first imagined having my own business. What a difference eight years makes - it was just an idea then, but now we have a real factory I can walk around in, and we have customers all over the world. I guess we've succeeded!

So where do we go now? The export market is so competitive that we can't simply rest on our current success. But there are lots of possibilities. Some of our major markets are moving toward local manufacturing, and we should be ready to arrange joint ventures or other kinds of co-operation with them. And we've reached a stage now where I believe we can approach organizations like the Canadian International Development Agency and the International Development Research Centre.

All in all, it's been an amazing eight years. Surprises along the way, some headaches, a lot of great moments, and a sense of real accomplishment. So I'm glad I took the plunge back in 1997. It was a risk, but we pulled it off, and I've never regretted it for a moment.

Here's to the future!

If you'd like more information about Clinotech, be sure to visit the company's website at www.clinotech.com .

Photo: Martin Lipman