The Dental Industry Landscape in India in The Latest Issue Of “Towards A Healthy India”

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The zeal to organise the bagmented Indian dental space resulted in the inception of prevention, not just cure’ and providing specialty services to the customers. In India, the dental space has been completely fragmented with a dearth of quality dental chains having a national footprint. Mom and Pop stores ruled the roost and kept mushrooming at every nook and cranny, which is still rampant. In the absence of organised dental set ups, there has been no consistency in neatments, technology and oral healthcare procedures. Unawareness compounded the simation, with oral health remaining largely ignored and not much attention being paid to ensuring proper dental care.To fill this gap became the sole aim of Axiss Dental, a partnership firm which came into existence after the merger of two dental clinics in Delhi — one run by Dr Sandeep Sharma and other by Dr Amit Sachdeva.

Thejour Ney Of Life - Initially, Axiss Dental was a partnership firm with the stakeholders having an equal share in the business. But moving forward it grew to become a private limited firm in 2007, after the whole structure was formalised.During the inception stage, money was infused by the parmers into the business and whatever the company earned was utilised to further expand the venture. Apart from what Axiss Dental earned through its business-to-customer model, it depended upon debts from banks to grow its network and capabilities.Between 2007 and 2012, Axiss Dental collaborated with various hospitals in Delhi-NCR and outsourced its business in totality. The company focussed on learning the tricks of the trade and enhancing its presence. Axiss Dental set up its clinics in the premises of the hospitals it entered into an alliance with, which gave its brand instant visibility and provided patients and infrastrucmre alongside. It also minimised the requirement for creating real estate infrastructure for clinics, unloading the burden of investing money on standalone clinics’creation. When resources were limited, the model worked and helped the company to come up with more stand alone clinics by making the most of the knowledge it gained born partnering with the hospitals. However, till date all the stand alone properties of Axiss are on lease, which are fully maintained and operated by the company.

Spreading Wings:- As the company begun to grow, there emerged the need for funding. In May 2012, Axiss Dental raised money via the private equity route, which it used for spreading its wings in other territories. After successfully establishing its business in Delhi-NCR, Axiss Dental started its operations in Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. In January this year, it took over the existing dental clinics of Narayana Health in Bangalore, adding to its fold 30 more clinics, which substantially took up the number of clinics of Axiss Dental to 65 in 12 cities.

What Makes It Unique:- The USP of the venture is that it was started by two dentists who knew the clinical technicalities of the business. At Axiss Dental, it is the doctors who are at the helm of managing it. The company also partners with individual dental clinics, bringing them under Axiss Umbrella. So the company was started by two doctors and now it is being run by them and fellow doctors only. A lot of focus in Axiss Dental is being given at sterilisation and safety procedures. All the Axiss Dental clinics adhere to the European Guideline of Dental Health and Sanitisation. At Axiss Dental, focus is not only laid on treating oral problems but also on creating awareness about the prevention of major dental diseases. Axiss Dental, predominantly,believes in prevention and not just cure.The company recently also launched an innovative annual dental plan which has been customised for patients, making the treatment cheaper and cost-effective. If patients are spending within company's plan, they can actually avail themselves of some points which can be used to buy the same plan again next year at a much more lower cost.The 700-employee company is committed toproviding quality facilities to customers and to do that it invests heavily on high—end equipment and technology. Axiss Dental follows a patient-centric approach and for serving the customers better, minute details relating to the patients are analysed, pre and post their neatments.To make its services accessible, the technology-led Axiss Dental opened the first ever 24x7 dental call centre in Bangalore is planning to open another one in Delhi soon. In 2012, Axiss Dental was a Rs 9-crore company, however, in the current fiscal 2014- 15, the company is estimated to be 3.5 times of that, which is an evidence of people mrning towards branded healthcare.

The Road Ahead:- As per Ken Research, in 2013, the unorganised segment of Indian dental care services market contributed a 94.5h» share while dental clinic chains accounted for the rest. In the present circumstances, potential in the segment is huge and Axiss Dental plans to extensively cash in on the opportunity.Going ahead, the company is looking at both organic and inorganic growth. There are plans to grow the number of clinics to over 200 in the next two years and cover whole of India. The company is targeting middle class consumers and beyond, offering services which are value-for-money for high- end dentistry. Work is in progress to make services more affordable and accessible for patients, so that high-end dentistry does not remain the prerogative of only a particular section of the society. In the future, Axiss Dental plans to raise fund as and when there is any such requirement and utilize that for further expansion. Axiss Dental was one of the first who took the step towards shaping India’s dental industry. Though it has come a long way, it still seems as if the journey has just begun...