Director Briefing with Darren Berry – The Tooth Booth Limited

In this Director Briefing, Darren Berry, Founder and Managing Director discusses:

• Growing brand of general and cosmetic dental clinics
• Tooth Booth’s retail business model
• Market opportunities and Company development

Edenexchange recently spoke with Darren Berry, the Managing Director and Founder of The Tooth Booth Limited. Darren discussed the Company’s expansion plans and its strategic position in the evolving modern dentistry market.

The Tooth Booth Limited is an Australian company founded in 2015 offering general and cosmetic dentistry in three Brisbane-based clinics. With its unique approach of owning and operating greenfield clinics in tier 1 retail shopping centers, the Company is often referred to as the “Specsavers of the dental industry”. It has opened three new clinics in Brisbane over the last eighteen months and is looking to open further clinics in the Australian market.

Edenexchange
Thanks for speaking with us Darren. Firstly, what brought you into a leadership position at Tooth Booth? What drove you to found the Company and can you tell us a bit about your background and experience?

Darren Berry
I owned dental and medical clinics for the past ten years and saw a noticeable demand for increased convenience and accessibility. That’s why I created The Tooth Booth as a ‘retail’ dental clinic experience.

Edenexchange
In simple terms, what does The Tooth Booth do? How do you generate revenue?

Darren Berry
The Tooth Booth is a growing brand of general and cosmetic dental clinics. We provide a wide range of dental services, including teeth whitening lounges and three surgery rooms in each of our clinics. To accommodate and be convenient for professionals, our operating hours extend into the evenings and weekends. We also cater for both pre-booked and walk in customers.

Edenexchange
The Tooth Booth is committed to patient care and customer service, but is also focused on building brand recognition. What are the key strengths of the business model? How are you different from other dental clinics?

Darren Berry
We provide new patients with a very affordable $149 checkup and clean. If the patient is a member of a private health fund with dental extras to utilise, this service is free (No out of pocket expense for the patient if private health insurance payment covers minimum charge) . This includes X-rays and a personalised treatment plan from our dentists. We offer our patients interest free payment plans that are supplied by third party companies. The application takes only minutes to complete on-line.

Our business model is clean and simple. We don’t take over existing clinics with potential legacy issues like different dentists, employees and equipment. Instead, we invest in greenfield clinics. As a result, the same equipment and processes are used in every Tooth Booth clinic. This also allows us to use staff and dentists throughout our network without wasting time training them on different equipment and systems. This also allows us to roll out new clinics and have them up and operational very quickly.

Edenexchange
From which demographics do you expect the greatest demand for your clinics to be from? How has the customer response been to date?

Darren Berry
Our patient demographic is both male and female between the ages of 17 to 50. Our first clinic in Chermside provided dental services to over 3000 new patients in its first 12 months of operations.

Edenexchange
What geographic markets does The Tooth Booth focus on?

Darren Berry
We target areas with a middle to high income demographic and position ourselves in Tier 1 and 2 Shopping Centres such as Westfield. It takes about nine months for a new clinic to settle in, so we have scheduled to open a new clinic every nine months.

Edenexchange
Do you see the modern dentistry market growing? What are the implications of this and how important is this to the growth of the Company?

Darren Berry
Modern dentistry is a growing market, and there are still many Australians that do not have a ‘Dentist’ that they call their own. It is important for us to create a relaxed and friendly, caring, painless atmosphere as there are many people in Australia that are phobic of going to the dentist.

Edenexchange
What stage of development is the The Tooth Booth in? How has this evolved since the Company launched?

Darren Berry
We currently have three clinics open, Chermside, Indooroopilly and Carindale. We plan to launch our North Lakes clinic in September 2017, with another 9 to follow in South East Queensland over the next 3 years. Having multiple clinics allows us to grow the brand, while still maintaining quality services.

Edenexchange
The Tooth Booth is led by a team of experienced professionals and Board of Directors. How important have these appointments been? What opportunities do they create for the Company?

Darren Berry
The Board members appointed have many years of experience in operating a large public listed dental association. This includes Debra Burden and Laurent Bordes, who were recently appointed to the Board and have both previously held executive management positions with ASX listed dental services company 1300SMILES. The Board of Directors provides us with expertise and networks. They study trends and figures, and have exceptional insight. As our end goal is to IPO in the next two to three years, this experience is invaluable.

Edenexchange
What major industry trends do operators in your industry, especially stakeholders in the modern dental industry, need to be aware of? How does Tooth Booth capitalise on these trends?

Darren Berry
Branding, location and accessibility is what the current generation of patient is looking for. Brand awareness is taking over from ‘loyalty’ to a particular practitioner. We have seen a major shift away from patients calling for appointments and appointment availability. More than fifty percent of our appointment bookings are completed on our online booking application on the Tooth Booth website.

Edenexchange
Where do you see the business in three months and a year from now? What are your strategic priorities?

Darren Berry
Once we have opened the North Lakes clinic, we plan to open a new clinic every nine to ten months. We plan to have coverage over the greater Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast areas in the next two years. Further expansion into the Australian market is planned to follow.

 

 

 

About The Tooth Booth Limited

 

The Tooth Booth Limited owns and operates three new greenfield dental clinics in Brisbane. The Company’s network expansion is via rollout of new dental clinics in convenient locations within busy shopping centers in South East Queensland, with the view to expand into New South Wales in the near future. The clinics are appealing and comfortable for patients, and efficient and productive for dentists. The model has been structured to enhance the attractiveness to both patients and dentists.

The Tooth Booth Limited is an unlisted public company led by a team of experienced professionals and Board of Directors. It is governed by the Corporations Act 2001. To view more information on The Tooth Booth Limited and the Company’s expansion plans, please visit Funding Strategies’ website (log-in required, joining is free). Alternatively, you can contact Funding Strategies by email: brisbane@fundingstrategies.com.au or by phoning +61 7 3160 2840.

Find out more about The Tooth Booth’s expansion plans here.

 

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