Katikati-based Triodent, which has reached $20 million turnover in just nine years, has won another award recognising its international dominance in leading-edge dental products.
Triodent's innovation was recognised at the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's International Business awards presentation in Auckland last night.
Competing alongside the best exporters in thecountry, Triodent was named a co-winner of the Best Use of Design in International Business. It shared the honours with Auckland's Sistema Plastics, which makes and markets food storage products. Triodent won the Best Use of Research and Development in the 2009 awards, and it also walked away with the supreme Bay of Plenty Exporter of the Year award last year.
It employs more than 100 people in design, manufacturing and sales, and sends its product to 60 countries. The company supplies 15,000 dentists in the United States, and others around the world, with intricate tools to make their job easier.
Founder and chief executive Simon McDonald developed 180 prototypes before finally settling on the successful V3 dental system. Triodent was launched in 2003 with the Tri-clip and two years later the product had developed into the V-ring. Three years later he realised he had to simplify his designs and produced the V3 tool kit, comprising a combination of instruments used to assist with difficult restorations of teeth in the back of the mouth. Dr McDonald spends countless hours mulling over the equipment dentists use and possible innovations to make the equipment function better.
