Savannah

Located just off King George Boulevard, you might not be familiar with the name Brasseler USA, but there’s a good chance you’ve been up close and personal with their products at least twice a year.

“We’re a pretty good size employer in the Savannah community, but a lot of people haven’t heard of us. We kind of fly under the radar out here in Georgetown,” said Ryan Dew, Senior Director of Business Operations for Brassler, a manufacturer of dental and surgical instruments.

While the regular citizen might not know the name, the same thing can’t be said for dentists, Dew said.

“One of the things we really enjoy is that we have nearly universal name recognition in the dental industry,” he said.

“Dentists know who we are and that helps us a lot because as we call on dentists we don’t have to explain who Brasseler is or what we do.”

Founded by German immigrant Peter Brasseler in Chicago in 1976, the company relocated to its southside home in 1981.

“Of all places he chose Savannah, Georgia, and I think we’re all very fortunate that he did decide to relocate here,” Dew said.

“He did it because of the great workforce, great weather and an opportunity to be in the southeast, I think was very important to him. And he saw a lot of opportunity particularly with an international company that we’re on the ocean and we take advantage of the ports.”

In the late 1990s Brasseler acquired DS Manufacturing Co. in Ventura, California, which manufactures rotary cutting instruments for dental and medical use. They also have a Canadian sales office in Quebec City.

Brasseler offers more than 15,000 products to the dental and surgical professions, including: rotary carbides; diamonds and polishers; power handpiece systems; endodontic tools; laboratory, hygiene and hand-held instruments; medical power systems; surgical blades and drill bits, often referred to as burs.

“Anything that we don’t manufacture, we have contract manufactured for us, so it’s very important to us that we’re the direct seller of our products,” Dew said.

The burs, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, are manufactured in Savannah, where more than half of the company’s 400 employees are located. The five types of burs are rounds, pears, inverted cones, fissures and tapered fissures and are named to describe the burs’ shape.

“You can’t buy Brasseler products from anyone else in the world except for Brasseler and we work with companies that will make them to our specifications (companies) from Europe, from Asia, we’re really just looking for the highest quality, most innovative products,” he said.

“We have our team here in Savannah that develops those, identifies market needs with dentists and really deliver innovated solutions.”

The company’s products can also be found at military bases around supporting dental clinics overseas thanks to a contract, which was valued at up to $12 million when it was renewed early last year, to provide "consumable dental items" to the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies.

“… It was a really significant contract for us,” Dew said.

“The government has always been a really strong customer for us, really going back to our founding.”

Adapting to industry changes

The company aims not to be the cheapest in the industry, but fulfil a need in the market with the highest quality products and services, which is becoming more important as dentistry becomes more and more digital, Dew said.

“So much of dentistry was driven by the artistry of the dentist or the artistry of the lab technician making a crown or a bridge, but more and more of that is moving to a computer, so we want to be on that wave and be at the forefront of what they call digital dentistry,” he said.

Those technological advancements have impacted the products the company offers as dentists begin to fabricate crowns in their offices with in-office milling machines. Instead of making a mold and sending it to a laboratory, dentist can use a digital wand, which produces a 3D model of a tooth.

“With these new materials and new processes we need to introduce new products to adjust, shape and polish these modern materials,” he said.

Another way the company is meeting the digital world head on is with their new online SmartSupply ordering program.

“Dentists typically have a need, just as we do in our personal lives for razor blades or a diaper subscription, dentists have a need for supplies in their office on a regular basis, as well and this is one of the very first examples in the dental industry of setting that subscription base for automatic ordering,” Dew said.

The program allows dentists to select the dental instruments they need most and have them delivered automatically on a schedule of their choosing and there’s no long term commitment to the program.

“They select the frequency and quantity... We put the control completely in the hands of the dental professional. We let them push out orders, cancel orders and do what they need to do,” he said.

“We really think this is a great way to remove some of the burden off the dental practitioner and let them focus on what they do best, which is taking care of the patients.”

Brasseler has also recently expanded its digital footprint across the northern border, as well. While the company has a Canadian sales office they recently launched online ordering, seizing a huge opportunity to grow their business.

“We have a very dedicated, loyal customer base there and fantastic reps there, but it’s a huge country. Geographically it’s very spread out and it can be hard for our reps to get to all those dentist, particularly in far, outlying territories,” Dew said.

“Now by offering a great e-commerce platform for them, we think that’s going to help us grow and enhance our business there.”

The website’s advanced features allow what they need quickly, by searching for a product by name, product number, category or even a specific product attribute. The site also includes videos, supporting documents and detailed descriptions, which puts everything they need in one spot.

The company maintains their strong sales team on the ground and on the phone, but the new website and online ordering program adds another piece to the puzzle by letting customers shop when it’s convenient for them.

“We just want to have every option out there available for our customers to do business with us and make it as easy and convenient as possible,” Dew said.

“… We get orders at all times of day and night, Labor Day we got a significant number of orders, Saturdays, Sundays, times when dental offices are traditionally closed we’re still getting orders, so that’s important to us.”

Looking ahead, Dew said he expects the company’s services and product offerings to become more customizable and specific.

“We see that general trend in the industry, people want specific products just for them that meet their exact needs,” he said, adding that while he couldn’t provide specifics on future plans, the company is also starting to explore non-traditional business models

“I think the first example of that was the automatic ordering program. It hasn’t been done a lot and we’re just looking for ways to service our customers better.”

For more information on Brasseler USA, go to www.brasselerusa.com/