BBJ: How did Fibre Medical come about, and the company’s journey begin?
Gergely Finfera: We came up with the core idea back in 2017. Until then, the two founding owners of the company worked in sales in the healthcare sector of a multinational company. We were looking to represent radiological equipment on the Hungarian market, which was already very well known on the international market but hadn’t received the necessary “attention” on the domestic market up to that point.
BBJ: Who were the founders, and how many people does Fibre Medical now employ?
GF: The company was founded by Dénes Brezovszki and me, and our current headcount stands at seven people. Today, we have several subcontractors to take care of the day-to-day tasks: administration, public procurement, customs clearance, transport, and so on.
BBJ: What kinds of medical apparatuses make up the company portfolio?
GF: It mainly consists of equipment used in radiological imaging, including C-arm surgical X-ray equipment from Ziehm Imaging GmbH Germany, ultrasound and low-field MRI equipment from eSaote SPA, as well as radiochemical equipment from Comecer SPA (both Italy). From the Far East, we also represent X-ray and angiography equipment by Shimadzu (Japan) and CT, MRI, X-ray, and angiography equipment byWandong Medical (China).
BBJ: What do you consider the most critical milestone in the company’s history?
GF: The most important milestone, in my opinion, was acquiring the first distribution. This was Ziehm Imaging GmbH, which is internationally the largest manufacturer of C-arm X-ray equipment. The company had been represented in Hungary for more than 15 years, but not with the right results. Negotiations with them took nearly half a year before we were granted non-exclusive distribution rights. We are now exclusive partners for both sales and service.
BBJ: Are there concrete plans regarding future expansion?
GF: Our new office is currently being built, and this is our primary development plan for 2023. This year, we have implemented an SAP (CRM-ERP) system already. As all the manufacturers represented have regional (national) representations, it is not possible to present our portfolio in other countries. No new distributions are foreseen for the time being. We also have equipment we use for demonstration purposes, and naturally, these are replaced regularly to stay up-to-date with the latest developments. We have digital mobile X-ray equipment, a high-capacity C-arm flat panel machine and several ultrasound machines for demonstration purposes.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of November 7, 2022.
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