Judy Bryant
1 December 2008
Johannesburg — THE Gabler medical group was founded in Cape Town 45 years ago by a German instrument maker, Alfred Gabler, and soon enjoyed a reputation as a market leader in suction and oxygen therapy equipment.
In many respects it was still a one-man business when Alfred's son Reiner stepped in for six months to keep operations running while his father was recuperating after surgery. This temporary arrangement led to Reiner, who'd already honed his entrepreneurial skills developing a specialised human resources software system, taking over the running of the company.
While Alfred's strengths were a strong engineering background and product design focus, MBA graduate Reiner was more market-driven. He grew Gabler Medical to include a comprehensive range of electric and pipeline suction equipment, flow meters and regulators, neo-natal care equipment and equipment mounting systems, in time to meet the demands of the rapidly growing private hospital sector in the late 1980s.
The company entered the single use medical devices field in 1995 and eight years ago a state-of-the-art, ISO 9001-certified plant was set up in Cape Town to manufacture the Scimitar range of surgical sutures, using only the best materials and needles.
This product range enabled the company to enjoy healthy profits despite the slowdown in private hospital expansion and government buyers cutting back from the late 1990s.
Exporting had begun informally through English business contacts in the early 1980s, but took off when Gabler Medical set up a subsidiary UK office in 1989.
"I started off by arriving in a country and looking in the Yellow Pages for prospective distributors. This was before the days of the internet!" says Gabler. "I identified companies by visiting embassies and medical trade shows. The message from me is simple -- do it yourself. Export consultants can cost a lot and don't understand your business as well as you do."
Gabler Medical now exports medical equipment and surgical sutures via distributors to the UK, Germany and other European countries, numerous Middle Eastern countries, the Far East and, more recently, the Balkan States. With Africa being on the company's doorstep, this is also an obvious export market.
The company has two factories under one roof -- for medical equipment and sutures -- and supports more than 90 staff. Manufacturing relies on semi-skilled workers who are trained in-house.
Gabler says a key factor in achieving healthy exports has been delivering top quality products. "We were one of the first, if not the first, South African medical device company to get ISO 9001 certification and the CE mark (a mandatory conformity mark on many products marketed in the European Economic Area) in 1998.
"We have always positioned ourselves at the top end, competing directly with European and US products."
A new development in the last two years has been receiving valuable leads and contacts via the web. "We set up our website eight years ago. Possibly 'old school' managers did not use the web but now the younger generation is moving up the ladder and using that channel. We've had some very exciting orders in the past 12 months."
However, he notes that the Middle East, historically a purchaser of only the finest quality medical equipment, is increasingly turning to cheaper Eastern producers. On the positive side, while exports have been hit hard by the strong rand over the last few years, the weakening rand has again made the cost of manufacturing competitive.
"Costs were out of sync with the value of the currency," Gabler says.
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