IMTEC Celebrates Grand Opening of  Office in Mexico
Monday,  July 28 ,2004

IMTEC Corporation of Ardmore has opened a new sales/marketing office in Mexico and formed a new corporation that will directly serve clinicians in Central and Latin America.

IMTEC Latinoamerica, located in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, hosted grand opening celebrations in Mexico on July 24 in Mexico City and on July 26, 2004 in Cuernavaca.  The IMTEC Latin American grand opening included a lecture on the company’s highly successful line of mini-dental implants by internationally known prosthodontist Dr. Charles E. English of Little Rock, Ark.

No stranger to the international market, IMTEC has done dental implant business many years in Mexico through collaboration with Dr. Ernesto León, a successful dentist and implantologist who lives in Cuernavaca. Dr. León has agreed to serve as the company's distributor and technical consultant.

Miss Helen Staufert-Siqueiros, a long-time IMTEC associate, has been chosen Director of Operations for the new Mexican company and takes initial responsibility to help introduce the newly formed entity to a potentially rapid growing market. The Mexican dental market potential convinced leaders of the Ardmore company to invest capital and resources into that market and open an office enabling Dr. León to continue as a consultant and Latin American liaison. Cuernavaca, a city exceeding 500,000, is located 30 minutes from the capital of Mexico City.

A Mexico City native and veteran of the dental implant industry, Miss Staufert has clearly defined goals to penetrate a promising market of approximately 80,000 dentists.

"The demand for dental implants, especially IMTEC's mini-dental implants, is growing rapidly and justifies a local presence," she said. "My job is to supervise all operations to the Mexico office and to aggressively work the market to demonstrate to Mexican doctors the great values of IMTEC's products."

Staufert has earned her status with IMTEC. She started as a teenager working in Dr. León's Cuernevaca dental clinic. Capitalizing on the opportunity to travel for the Ardmore company, she has attended numerous Latin America, South America, and United States trade shows.

"It was a great experience for me as I got to visit major capitals all around the world at an age where many people were still in college," she said. "I especially enjoy any program or trade show in Miami because there are a lot of Spanish speaking doctors and citizens there. Plus my ability to speak English fluently has assisted me greatly when I’m at American dental trade shows."

Even though she started working at a tender age, education didn't elude Staufert. Part-time classes and determination has enabled her to earn a degree in architecture.

"It has taken many years of study but I now have a degree in architecture from the Universidad La Salle. I'm now taking that study to the next level and studying structural engineering at the Benem'erita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla," Staufert explained. Still, I’m excited about continuing my work in the dental industry with so many IMTEC employees from Ardmore that I’ve gotten to know over the years.

Assessing the international market, Staufert tracks a growing demand that will continue, noting dentists can become quickly skilled in dental implanting after relatively short training courses. Language poses few barriers to the training by American specialists like Dr. English, because she finds most Mexican doctors speak fluent English.

"A big problem in dental care for developing countries is the cost for persons with lower incomes," she said. "Mexico is no exception. That's why the IMTEC MDI has such promise ... the implants can be sold to a dentist in any location at an amazing low price, and the dentist in turn can place the implants for the patient at a nominal cost. That makes the implants affordable to people who couldn't ordinarily afford them. We think that Mexico is a prime market for this wonderful product."

Stephen J. Hadwin, an executive vice-president of IMTEC, journeyed to Mexico with several other IMTEC employees for the grand opening and training session. We trained over 85 Mexican dentists on Saturday in Mexico City and 53 more in Cuernevaca on Monday, Hadwin explained. Our products were well received and sales were gratifying. We’re looking forward to an aggressive offering of our products in Mexico with this new company.

Hadwin explained that Mexico, Puerto Rico and even Cuba are the initial prime markets for the international expansion. Concerning doing business with Cuba, Staufert said under Mexican law companies there can legally do business with Cuban doctors. Hadwin noted that IMTEC is taking steps to ensure such a market can be legally developed under U. S. State Department regulations.

"I'm excited about traveling to Havana and look forward to IMTEC's first trade show there," Staufert said. "It should be an experience."

IMTEC Corporation is a dental specialty products company located in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The company does business in every state and currently in eighty-five foreign countries.

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