British medical device company Smith & Nephew has developed into a global healthcare power after its modest start as a family-run business over 150 years ago.
Here are 10 things to know about Smith & Nephew:
1. Smith & Nephew's history started in 1856, when Thomas James Smith opened a pharmacy in Hull, England. When Mr. Smith died in 1896, his nephew, Horatio Nelson took over the business. As soon as World War I started in 1914, Mr. Nelson secured a contact that called for him to supply 350,000 British pounds-worth of surgical and field dressings to the French military.
2. In 1998, Smith & Nephew restructured and began focusing the majority of their work in wound management, endoscopy and orthopedic devices. All three offered high growth and margin opportunities. In 2014, Smith & Nephew launched Syncera, a service-light implant model for lower cost devices.
3. Smith & Nephew has been one of the top 100 companies traded on the London Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalism since 2001.
4. Olivier Bohuon has been Smith & Nephew's CEO since 2011. His career in the pharmaceutical industry has led to a multitude of roles with increasing amounts of responsibility all over the world. During his time at Smith & Nephew, Mr. Bohuon has striven to enhance earnings by discarding ex-growth parts of the company's portfolio. Rodrigo Bianchi is President (Asia Pacific and emerging markets); Jack Camp is Chief Legal Officer; Brad Cannon is President (Europe and Canada). In November 2016, Smith & Nephew announced that Graham Baker will begin serving as CFO on March 1, 2017.
5. In 2015, rumors swirled that Stryker had set aside $18 billion to acquire Smith & Nephew. There were reportedly talks between the two the year before after Medtronic acquired Covidien. However, Mr. Bohuon maintained the company was focused on internal growth. Smith & Nephew acquired ArthroCare Corp. in 2014 for $1.5 billion. The purchase significantly accelerated Smith & Nephew's sports medicine and joint repair portfolios. The company also acquired Blue Belt Holdings in a $275 million deal that closed in October 2015. Blue Belt Technologies' Navio system provides robotic assistance for partial knee replacements in both the inpatient and outpatient setting.
6. Some of Smith & Nephew's big products are Acticoat, Accord cable system, various Acufex devices, and Trigen devices.
7. Smith & Nephew reached an agreement with Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based OrthAlign in 2016 that allowed the company to distribute KneeAlign technology as part of its own portfolio of products in 21 countries across the world.
8. Forbes placed Smith & Nephew at the 70 slot in their 2016 list of "The World's Most Innovative Companies."
9. The company's revenue fell in the fourth quarter of 2016, yet it still reported an overall 90 percent rise in pretax profit for the year. Its full-year revenue increased from $4.63 billion in 2015 to $4.67 billion in 2016 and it expects to grow between 1.2 percent and 2.2 percent in 2017.
10. On Jan. 27, 2017, Smith & Nephew announced that it had retained its FTSE4GOOD membership. The FTSE4GOOD Series helps investors identify companies that integrate environmental, social and governance factors into their investment decisions. Smith & Nephew has been a FTSE4GOOD member since 2001.
Smith & Nephew is an exhibitor at the Becker's 15th Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference + The Future of Spine event, June 22-24, 2017 in Chicago. Orthopedic and spine surgeons and industry experts will speak on the latest businss, regulatory and economic trends - to learn more and register for the event, click here.
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