Salomão & Zoppi appoints CEO and plans to expand
Valor Econômico
After 30 years under familiar administration, the São Paulo laboratory Salomão & Zoppi is professionalizing the company eyeing the heated market of diagnostic medicine that has been the scenario of intense negotiations and had activities of R$ 11 billion (US$ 5.6 billion) last year.
The first step of the professionalization is the hire of Luis Mario Bilenky for CEO, a position created for this new phase of the laboratory. The executive - who was previously at Fleury and also worked for McDonald's, Blockbuster, Fotoptica Hospital Sabará and Pátria fund - comes to Salomão & Zoppi with a mission to expand the number of units, without leaving the distinguished service through which the laboratory is known. Today, most customers are indication of the physicians.
With five units, two inside the Pro Matre and Santa Joana maternities, Bilenky assesses that there is room so that Solomon & Zoppi has between 20 and 25 units in São Paulo. The expansion process begins in the second half of next year. "Until then, we will reorganize the company internally, with the creation of a board of directors. It is a culture change", Bilenky said. The founders of the laboratory, doctors Luis Solomon and Paulo Zoppi, will share the board of directors and engage in a new area of scientific research.
The idea of professionalizing the management began to mature with the wave of mergers and acquisitions through which the sector of medical diagnosis has been undergoing. The very Salomão & Zoppi is a constant target of competitors bids, but the controlers are still hitting the key that they are not for sale. The new CEO says that the possibility of Solomon & Zoppi join other laboratories to form a third major group of the sector, after Fleury and Dasa, is not ruled out.
Solomon & Zoppi is a target of interest for being reference in the medical community and also because of the numbers presented in recent years. Although the earnings are still modest, something around R$ 52 million (US$ 26.4 million) last year, the final result showed significant growth. The net income jumped from R$ 2.6 million (US$ 1.4 million) in 2008 to R$ 11.3 million (US$ 5.7 million) in 2009. There was improvement in profit because of a better control of the expenses and growth in the number of tests carried out last year, especially in the first half, when the economic crisis has made people anticipate their health exams for fear of losing their jobs and, consequently, the health plan.