Frost & Sullivan Lauds Ziehm Imaging's Rapid Market Share Gain in the Mobile Surgical C-Arm Market for Private Hospitals

Use of demonstrative C-arm devices serves as a key feature of the company's branding and promotion strategy

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent research on the mobile surgical C-arm market, Frost & Sullivan Best Practice presents Ziehm Imaging SA with the 2012 Market Penetration Leadership Award.

'We are absolutely delighted to see that Ziehm Imaging is the Award recipient for this category in 2012," said Birgitta Cederstrom, Head of Best Practices, Growth Innovation & Leadership for Africa.

"Despite being relatively new to the market, Ziehm Imaging has rapidly increased its market share over the past 24 months," explained Birgitta Cederstrom, Head of Best Practices, Growth Innovation & Leadership for Africa. "When compared with other leading suppliers, it has, established itself as the leading supplier of devices for interventional radiography to the private South African hospital market."

Ziehm Imaging grew its installed base by approximately 42% from 2007 to 2011, resulting in a market share rise from 19% to 24%. However, its core success was in increasing its installed base from 20% to 39% in the highly competitive private sector hospital market.

Ziehm Imaging supplies products of a highly sophisticated nature, which are increasingly being used in the percutaneous surgeries performed in the private hospital environment. The South African private hospital market is looking for advanced interventional radiography products to cater to the complex nature of the surgeries performed, making it a tough market to penetrate.

The use of demonstrative C-arm devices serves as a key feature of the company's branding and promotion strategy. Competitors find it difficult to compete with this strategy as grass-root level user preferences for Ziehm Imaging products are already too strong, which highly influences hospital group procurement decisions.

"Ziehm Imaging's use of demonstration models across its regional footprint is a primary strategy contributing to its success," said Frost & Sullivan's Healthcare Industry Analyst, Ryan Lobban. "Surgeons and radiographers exposed to the company's offerings leverage their preferences to hospital and group procurement managers at the time of procurement."

South African surgeons are also exposed to the technically sophisticated offerings of the devices through international conferences held by the company's affiliate across Europe. As a result, Ziehm Imaging is, able to position its product offerings in line with global surgical trends and expectations.

Further, Ziehm Imaging possesses a strong regional distribution and technical support network, which is a key success factor for servicing devices across both the private and the public sector installed bases.

"Private hospital groups possess hospitals across a wide geographic area. It is essential for hospital groups to procure from companies possessing the capacity, and nationwide presence, to maintain and repair devices on an ad hoc basis over the group's regional coverage," explained Lobban. "Regional technical support capacity is a key criterion considered by the procurement heads since quick and efficient technical support diminishes the down-time of the devices and reduces the lifecycle costs."

Ziehm Imaging's robust competitive strategy markets an outstanding product portfolio, catering to surgical needs across a diverse range of surgeries in the urology, neurosurgery, cardio-thoracic and orthopaedic surgical segments. Ziehm Imaging's most innovative products include the Ziehm Vision RFD Hybrid Edition and the Ziehm Vision R. The devices' rotating anode allows for a sophisticated field of vision and improved image quality.

The company is also the leader in mobile flat-panel detectors (FPD). FPDs possess numerous advantages over conventional image intensifier devices. Image quality of FPD is distortion free and, hence, more accurate to read. The devices are also frequently lighter and occupy less space when compared to image intensifier devices.

Overall, Ziehm Imaging's achievements in the South African mobile C-arm market have set the standard for domestic market penetration. The use of demonstration models and a strong regional technical support capacity remains the gold standard for other leading market competitors. In recognition of these achievements, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present Ziehm Imaging with the 2012 Africa Market Penetration Leadership Award in the mobile surgical C-arm market.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company demonstrating excellence in capturing the fastest measured rate of change of market share within its industry. The award recognises how fast a company increases its penetration of a market, in terms of revenues or units as specified.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards acknowledge companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Best Practice Awards, please contact Birgitta Cederstrom, Head – Best Practices: Growth Innovation and Leadership, Africa, at +27 21 680 3263 or email: birgitta.cederstrom@frost.com

About Ziehm Imaging SA

Ziehm Imaging specializes in the development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing of mobile X-ray-based imaging solutions. The company has been a market leader in Germany and other European countries for many years. Today, Ziehm Imaging is a global systems provider, employing over 300 people worldwide. Building on competence and creativity, a continuous dialogue and close cooperation with partners, Ziehm Imaging is elevating the boundaries of mobile X-ray imaging and has become a global trendsetter in interventional imaging. Ziehm Imaging has received several awards for its groundbreaking technologies, including the iF design award 2011 and Frost & Sullivan award 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. For more information, please visit: www.ziehm.com

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Contact:

Samantha James
Corporate Communications Africa
samantha.james@frost.com
T: +27 21 680 3574