DENTSPLY SIRONA (XRAY) Baird's 2024 Global Healthcare Conference summary

Transformation strategy and operational progress

• Two years into a transformation journey, focusing on digitalization, innovation, and customer-centricity.

• Strategic objectives are cascaded throughout the organization, aligning annual plans, bonuses, and investments.

• Ongoing restructuring, ERP refinement, and network efficiency initiatives are on track, with deliberate cost-saving and commercial investments.

• Leadership changes attributed to personal decisions and restructuring, with team and board alignment on transformation goals.

• $80–$100 million in additional cost savings targeted over the next 18 months, with a portion reinvested in growth initiatives.

Digital product innovation and market positioning

• Primescan 2, a wireless, cloud-native intraoral scanner, launched as the entry point to a DS Core-based digital ecosystem.

• DS Core has 27,000 unique users, with usage growing as features expand; all future technology launches will be cloud-based.

• Cloud solutions expected to differentiate, improve practice efficiency, and reduce hardware costs, especially for multi-site practices and DSOs.

• Primescan 2 targets a mid-market price point, is margin-accretive, and aims to drive scanner penetration in underpenetrated markets.

• Scanners are positioned as gateways to digital workflows, with record sales in 2023 and further growth expected in 2024.

Regional market dynamics and channel strategy

• Europe, especially Germany, remains the largest market but faces poor dentist sentiment and weak capital equipment demand.

• U.S. market is stable with marginal softening; China and Japan show slightly weaker outlooks.

• Distribution agreement renegotiations, notably with Patterson, aim to extract more value and attention from partners.

• No broader changes to other distribution agreements are planned at this time.