Keep product lines simple to move quickly on opportunities then focus resources to drive growth and performance.

Tom Mallison
President, Drucker Diagnostics

Simplify & Focus To Drive Results

Drucker Diagnostic’s wide range of laboratory centrifuges products help diagnose and treat patients in hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and physician offices in more than 80 countries around the world.

For more information on this story, contact
Tom Mallison, President, Drucker Diagnostics: [email protected]

Goal
Simplify the company product portfolio to eliminate underperforming products and shift focus to capture rapidly growing platelet-rich plasma (PRP) niche with the Boost
centrifuge line.

Process
A review of sales and earnings by product lines showed poor performance of three product lines: ParaLens Advance (PLA), QBC F.A.S.T. AFB, and Sample Safe, which required dedicated and unique production and operational resources to support due to the nature of the products. Combined, these three product lines provided less than 2% revenue in 2019 and 2020.

The PLA and F.A.S.T. AFB products used fluorescence microscopy that were unique products for Drucker Diagnostics operations in mainly international markets, didn’t have strong margins, and required dedicated training and technical support. Sample Safe was an add-on product to centrifuges that help store and maintain laboratory samples at appropriate temperatures prior to courier pick up. However, the manufacturing process caused the product to be significantly more expensive than the current industry standard and was difficult to scale effectively.

Based on these challenges, they decided to remove the product lines from their offering and shift focus to the rapidly expanding PRP niche market to become the centrifuge provider of choice. For the PRP niche, they developed the Boost centrifuge line as their primary offering and were starting to see sales accelerate with several customers growing into Quad 1 accounts.

After the decision was made, the team worked together to discontinue product lines while maintaining customer relationships, including some Quad 1 accounts, by providing alternate solutions and last-time buy options as needed.

Next, they shifted existing and added new commercial resources to drive PRP revenue growth while building reputation in the market for quality, delivery, and value. Additional product management resources were also able to help customers understand how the Boost centrifuge solution would give them flexibility to run multiple sample sizes with a single centrifuge and helped develop an insert solution to expand the Boost capabilities.

Finally, they shifted available production and operational resources to build supply chain and production capacity while maintaining quality and improving operational efficiency by taking the floor space used to manufacture the Sample Safe and dedicated it to manufacturing Boost centrifuges.

Results

  • Became centrifuge provider of choice for PRP market
  • Grew PRP segment from $3.3M in 2020 to $4.6M YTD in 2022
  • Increased PRP unit output capacity from 32 units per week to over 100 units per week while maintaining efficiency and quality

Key Learnings

  • Use strong product management function to connect commercial and operational resources to drive operational efficiency.
  • Move quickly to discontinue products that aren’t selling; waiting doesn’t fix the problem.
  • Maintain relationships by talking to customers about products that are going away and help them understand and manage the transition.