Episode 7: Nicolas Ploquin

Nicolas Ploquin, CEO of Acteon – a leader in dental imaging, prophylaxis, and consumables - chats with Candesic head of content David Farbrother about everything from AI and ROI to striking the balance between cost and quality, brand loyalty, and what is driving demand in a global market.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello and welcome to Candetic in Conversation, a podcast series exploring the big innovations, opportunities, and challenges in health and social care, life sciences, and medtech. Today Candetic is in conversation with Nicolas Blancoin, who is the Action Group's CEO. Welcome to the podcast and thank you for your time today. Thank you, David. So the way I see it is you've got dental imaging, you've got small equipment, things like air polishing and ultrasonic scaling, and you've got pharma and consumables.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, sure. Pharma consumable many anesthesics. So you want the dentist to use an anesthesic when he's on your teeth?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Who owns the company?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

The current owner of Acton are the Dentresson Capital Groups. It's a long-term family-owned private group who bought the company in 2018.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

You have a manufacturing base in France. How does a localized European-centric supply chain benefit you? I'm thinking that if there's a cost-conscious dentist, they might look at, say, cheaper non-European imports if there's a price difference.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah, we we don't really see manufacturing in Europe as a cost disadvantage. We truly see it as a strategic asset. I think it gives us uh quality control, it gives us regulatory reliability, supply chain resilience, um, especially post-COVID. You know, a lot of industries like ours have been rethinking this. Dentists uh may be price sensitive, but at the end of the day they are ultimately re-sensitive. You know, when you have a patient, when you have between 10 to 20 patients in your day, you you really make you need to make sure that the product is there, reliable on supply in time. So I do believe dentists uh are at the end of the day uh really sensitive. They they truly value reliability, precision on service, and that's what we we are every day doing at ACTEO.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

So are your main competitors Europe-based or are they outside of Europe?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

So it depends, but but but it's a global game. Uh we in imaging, we we have some Asian, Korean, uh, Swedish competitors. In the anesthesic, we have a French, uh, French competitors. Uh in special equipment, uh, we deal with American and other international players. So it's really a global game.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Got it. And um, speaking of cost conscious operators, digital imaging dominates the market now. I'm assuming that there's still a stubborn cohort of analog users, maybe in emerging markets, or let's say older solo practices in less consolidated areas. Do you have a strategy? Do you even need a strategy to get that wave of analog to digital transition, or is it just happening?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah, imaging in general is so much creating value in the daily practice for the dentist. When you want to explain to your patients uh the importance of doing uh you know a tooth replacement, uh whitening, uh prophylaxy, you know, the imaging is so much adding uh helping the dentist in the communication to patient. And patients are asking for for it. It's uh I think you know patients themselves are putting pressure on dentists to equip themselves. And some of the machines are costing few hundred euros, honestly speaking. You know, we have one camera called the C50, it's less than 1,000 euros, so it pays by itself. So I would say the transition is really inevitable. Um, and it's not just about technology, it's about adoption. So we really focus on making digital simpler, more intuitive, more economically justified for practitioner. That that means, of course, uh training, welfare integration, clear AOI, and not just hardware.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

So you can justify it on the figures. But patients, I guess, are also much more like consumers these days. Over the last decade or so, they're they're shopping around, they're looking at the internet, they're reading the reviews, they're making the reviews.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

They need to be seen, they need to be visually uh connected. It's really important in today's world.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Let's touch on AI now, which we can't ignore in any walk of life. To what extent are you embracing artificial intelligence? To what extent is it a potential challenge?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

You know, I I I I very often said a dentist is like the hairdresser. I think we will not disrupt. We will need a hairdresser, we'll need a dentist, we need a cook. Um I think robots are not there to disrupt dentists. People will need dentists today and tomorrow. But I do believe AI is not a threat, it's really uh an accelerator. Uh the the true risk, the true risk uh you know, in company like ours, and it's you know, I talk about AI every day to my management team, is really not to move fast enough. Uh in our space, AI is reshaping diagnostic workflows, uh, decision support for clinicians. So it will really not uh replace practitioners, it will augment them. So we provide uh tools, especially in imaging, which are making the diagnostic faster, which is also helping the dances to show uh you know with visual animation, the you know, the the the matrix of the the T's, the the place where there is opportunities to improve. So I I think the players should not be concerned about those sitting on data but not using it. So I do believe in MedTech AI won't replace companies, but companies using AI will replace those who don't. So it's really the mandates uh that we're working on at uh at ActEon.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

I think that over the last couple of years, some of the independent operators might have been hesitant to finance a major capital equipment upgrade. How do you sell high-end surgical and imaging equipment to operators who maybe are tightly guarding their capital expenditure at the moment?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

So, first we we don't uh uh sell the rest most of the time. 80% of our contact to finite dentists are done through strategic distributors. So we we have a strategic collaboration with Henry Sharing globally, with Benko Patterson in the US, with Calance in Europe. So they are the ones uh who visit the dentist every day, who provide all the service, and we work with them to provide financial support, financial leasing models that are helping uh dentists to buy uh some of those equipment. But very often we as ACTEON we viewed as a very good value proposition with a very interesting ROI, you know. The conversation in this, I would say, tougher macro environment is the conversation shift from can I afford it to can I afford not to have it. So we really position ourselves around productivity, clinical outcome, patient experience. And when a system improves workflow and increases patient throughput, the real eye uh becomes very tangible. So that's what our reps we have more than 150 reps globally, and that's what our reps uh working closely with distributors are are trying to engage and are very much convincing a lot of our final customers to buy our equipment.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

So we're back to what we said previously. People will pay for quality, they'll pay where they can see the return on investment because if they make that investment, then it will pay for itself in time.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Yes, yes. And the dentist, I would say, is uh he's both a clinician and an entrepreneur. You know, he owns his clinics, he's buying his chair, he's buying his machine. So the dentist is, you know, of course, looking for an innovation, but he's looking for a nation that pays out, that have a good return investment, and that supports his daily practice. Uh, that's why there is a huge loyalty to our brands because the dentists believe Action is a very reliable brand.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Is there a loyalty in that? How reluctant are people to switch brands? And once people have established their brand, um is it like I am with my bank? I've got the same bank that I had when I was an 18-year-old. I've just never bothered shopping around. Is it similar in this field? Presumably it's all based on relationships as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah, it's it's tough. I I would say in medical in general, it's tough uh to change habits. So it it's important to understand one of the key things, one of my early motto coming to Acton is really understanding better the customers. And that's also something that helped me throughout my 25 years of experience in healthcare. So trying to understand the challenges, the the insight of dentist, and on trying to see if there's still some untapped opportunity. And you would be surprised there is still a lot of opportunity to make the dentist more efficient in his daily practice. You know, a lot of those dentists are going through tough times, you know, uh short staff, uh, you know, pressure, you know, uh interest rates going up. So, how can we make this dentist work smarter, faster? How can we help the dentist have a better communication to his patients? How can we basically make the dentist a better both clinician and entrepreneurs? And when you understand that, when you provide solutions that really help the dentist to do that, you know it can shift, it can shift brands.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

And when you look at your global operations today, where do you think the greatest untapped opportunities are for your business?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, I would say US is 40%, is is the number one market on the globe. So it's a market you cannot miss. So we have a presence there, we we have a good market share, uh, depending on the on the segment, uh, between five to ten percent. So we are a challenger in in the US, but we are doubling down right now in the US because it's still uh despite all the challenges, geopolitical challenges of the US on the barrier, uh the tariff uh change last year. We do believe US is is a strategic market. So I'm currently my team currently investing, doubling down in the US. We're adding more reps over there, we're increasing our marketing efforts on clinical partnering. Outside of the US, um we are focusing very much on Asia. Uh I was in I was in China a couple of weeks ago for the second time. We do believe there is a huge abortion in Asia, uh, both in China, which is the second largest dental market. A lot of you know, an Aflian population right now in China is looking for advanced dental uh you know equipment, and hence we do believe Acton has as a play uh over there. But also Japan is a very important market, also. So we're currently looking at geographical expansion in Asia after US. And last but not least, we're also looking at uh Latin America as another opportunity. And I think you've got some experience there with Unilabs, haven't you? Yes, so so both at JJ and uh where I was leading the diabetes care market in Latin America, and at Unilabs I have uh some both personal experience because my kids are half Mexican uh on professional experience in Latin America. So it's uh you're right, it's uh it's a region dear to my to my heart.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

When a new CEO comes in, it's important, of course, to take the management team with you. How do you keep everybody on board and heading in the right direction and the same direction?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

I've reorganized my management team uh trying to reduce layers. For me, it's it's key as a CEO to be close to customers, to understand. I spent a lot of time on the field, I spent a lot of time with dentists uh to try to listen to their needs, and I've reduced layers. Uh, I've created three regions directly reporting to me: one America's, one Europe, one Asian Middle East, which is really helping those global leaders. Uh, one is American, the other one is French. The third leader is Hong Kong, is from Hong Kong, speaking Chinese. So I have a very global team who uh I speak as I speak every week that really uh have access directly to CEO and really making sure we combine both you know uh customer insight and innovation, you know, and uh and that's one of the key things I'm gonna be focusing on in the next uh couple of years to really make sure we maintain that continuous rhythm of innovation throughout those three platforms I mentioned.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

We're running out of time, but I wanted to ask a slightly left field question, thinking about your role on the MedFit Steering Committee. We've got people watching this in private equity and venture capital investors, and I'm just wondering what specific red flags you look for when you are evaluating a medtech startup's commercial scalability or whether they have regulatory preparedness?

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, so a lot of the entrepreneurs' inventors um would say uh uh blind spot is sometimes they fell in love with their technology so much they might be forgetting uh you know path to reimbursement, path to market access. So when I worked at Cera Nova or when I worked with several you know startups, you know, I try to discuss with either the CEO or the inventors, you know, how much energy you of course need to continue to work on your technology, but also how much you need to work on a clear path to reimbursement and market access. And a lot of those entrepreneurs uh they often underestimate the regulatory complexity to get into Asia, to get into the US. You know, being strong in France doesn't mean you're gonna be strong in the rest of Europe. So I would say this is one of the key things I've been working on with startups, making sure you you secure a realistic go-to-market in other markets, you know, in your in you know, and you understand that I would say medical device uh as is is is is as as as you know as has a very strict uh regulation called MDR. Um and it's really important that those startups understand clearly those uh route to market.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

It's not enough to have a great product, you've got to understand how to get paid for it.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. And in med tech adoption matters almost more than in invention. You know, that's that's that's really key. Um so so I would say let's not forget market access.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Got it. Sadly, the clock appears to have run down on us. Nicola, thank you so much for your time today.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Thank you very much, David. It was a very good dialogue. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

And thank you to everyone who has watched or listened all the way to the end of this podcast. My name is David Farbrother, and I am director of content and communication at Candesic. We are a London-based consultancy. Feel free to link in with me or drop me an email. I would love to hear from you. New podcasts in the series are available regularly on YouTube, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.