Following are two postings from Gerand who is knowledeable re Vetscan in the marketplace. He posts on YAHOO and although I won't paste all his future postings I thought it everyone here might be interested in what he has to say.
Dan
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Dan, nice to see an active and free board on Abaxis. I've followed ABAX boards on SI for a few months and have always enjoyed the thoughts posted there by you. I just never felt like forking over the subscription fee, choosing instead to use that money to buy stocks like ABAX.
Anyway, I am in the veterinary supply biz, and have been an Abaxis fan. Great technology, easy to use, and great potential. You already know that their electrolyte panel is crucial to the human market, and this will also be important to vets. However,
something I've never seen you mention on the SI boards is competition. In case you weren't aware, Idexx (IDXX) is the big guy on the block, and they're not too happy about this uppity little guy (ABAX) making inroads into their market. I know that Abaxis has really hurt Idexx, and if you have any doubts, look at what happened to Idexx's stock earlier this year (especially the 20 point drop in one day).
So of course Idexx is fighting back, and some of what I've seen includes: Idexx's system that competes with the Vetscan usually sells for over $20,000. I was competing to sell a Vetscan in a clinic that was looking at Idexx's. The vet told the Idexx
rep he was going for the Vetscan, so the Idexx rep offered to give him the Idexx system for FREE. Amazing. Anyway, the good news is that the vet was so impressed with the Vetscan that he chose to pay for the quality product (costing him about $8000) from Abaxis.
Regarding Stu's concerns about big sales, I think you may not see too many more in the domestic vet market because there really are only two big players (VCA and Vetsmart), and Abaxis already earned their business. Most vet hospitals are individual practices,
but I believe sales will continue grow as vets come to accept that this is a reliable machine and talk to their collegues. Also, as you know, the machine sales make headlines, but the disposable reagent discs will be this company's source of real revenue in the future.
Go Abaxis!
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Dan,
I do speak with their territory sales reps, but no one higher than that. Their reps are very good, and work hard, but Idexx has many more reps and therefore Abaxis does not have as much of a presence in the vet market as their competitors.
I've seen you mention your concern over the web page issue before, and being that I am also internet oriented, I understand your reasoning. However, I also know that Abaxis has a limited budget and is trying to do whatever it can with its advertising
and sales budget. They have been doing a reply card program where a video is sent out and a lead is generated, and have had good success. I do hope this eventually ramps up to something more interactive in the future. I think journal advertisements that refer to a website demonstration would be very useful, especially since they are outmanned in the field.
My clients are very interested in the Vetscan, but they will be more interested when the electrolyte panels arrive. The other thing many are waiting for is hematology. I do not know if Abaxis is working on this or not, but this is an area that Idexx
beats them on. Idexx packages a system that includes a number of machines, one of which does hematology. Their hematology unit is the most widely used in the market. When competing against Abaxis, customers are told that Idexx's hematology unit will not work alongside the Vetscan. While this is not true, it nevertheless works occasionally to lock out the Vetscan. Also, if a clinic is looking to set up in-house blood testing, they will have to speak to Idexx if they want hematology, which gives
Idexx an opportunity to push out Abaxis. Hematology is important to many vets.
The equine product is also a Vetscan. You just use a different reagent disc. Remember, the discs are really the heart of the technology. I am told the Piccolo is the same too.
And if you want to post my thoughts on SI, I guess that would be OK, although I doubt SI would appreciate my comment on what I'd rather do with my $75 (investing it rather than subscribing to SI).
Gerand |
