LeMaitre Vascular to Start Italian Sales Force
October 01 2007 - 5:23PM
PR Newswire (US)
BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LeMaitre
Vascular, Inc., (NASDAQ:LMAT), a provider of peripheral vascular
devices and implants, today announced that it has reached an
agreement to launch a direct sales force in Italy in January 2008.
LeMaitre Vascular currently sells its products in Italy through an
exclusive distribution agreement with Serom Medical Technologies
srl. LeMaitre Vascular and Serom agreed to terminate Serom's
exclusive rights on January 25, 2008 in exchange for the payment of
an undisclosed sum. Serom had previously held exclusive
distribution rights in Italy from 1992 through Q4 2008. Net
revenues of LeMaitre Vascular products sold to Serom in 2006
totaled approximately euro 0.9 million, more than any other
LeMaitre Vascular distributor. LeMaitre Vascular believes that
Serom's hospital-level sales approximated euro 1.9 during this same
period. LeMaitre Vascular expects to open an office in Rome in Q4
2007 and commence direct sales to Italian hospitals in Q1 2008.
LeMaitre has hired a general manager of its Italian operations to
manage a smooth market transition. Serom will provide a range of
consulting services designed to facilitate this transition.
"Selling direct in Italy allows us to develop closer relationships
with our vascular surgeon customers and also allows us to capture
higher gross margins," added Peter R. Gebauer, President,
International of LeMaitre Vascular. "Italy is at the forefront of
the endovascular revolution and is the largest aortic stent graft
market in Europe. We look forward to having a direct sales presence
in this market." "This is the continued execution of the
'Go-Direct' strategy that we initiated in 1998 in Germany, and that
we have continued in the U.K., Japan, the Benelux, Austria, Sweden,
and this year France," said George W. LeMaitre, Chairman and CEO of
LeMaitre Vascular. "This is the natural conclusion to a long and
mutually productive relationship with Serom." LeMaitre Vascular
expects to record a charge of approximately $1.1 million in Q3 2007
as a result of this transaction. Forward-Looking Statements This
press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Statements in this press release regarding the Company's
business that are not historical facts may be "forward-looking
statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. Specifically,
statements regarding the Company's financial guidance and its
operational objectives, and the Company's ability to hire a direct
sales organization, attain higher gross margins and develop closer
relationships with Italian vascular surgeons, are forward-looking
statements involving risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking
statements are based on management's current, preliminary
expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ from the results predicted and
include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to
successfully retain Serom's customer base for LeMaitre Vascular
products, the Company's ability to retain a material portion of
Serom's sales agent network, the Company's ability to expand its
sales force in Italy, risks related to product demand and market
acceptance of the Company's products, the significant competition
the Company faces from other companies, technologies and
alternative medical procedures, the Company's ability to expand its
product offerings through internal development or acquisition, the
Company's ability to realize the anticipated benefits of its
acquisitions, disruption at the Company's single manufacturing
facility, the Company's lack of experience with and general
uncertainty related to seeking regulatory approvals for its
products, particularly in the United States, potential claims of
third parties that the Company's products infringe their
intellectual property rights and the risks and uncertainties
described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2006, under the heading "Risk Factors" filed
with the SEC, and available on its investor relations website at
http://www.lemaitre.com/ and on the SEC's website at
http://www.sec.gov/, and in subsequent SEC filings. Undue reliance
should not be placed on forward-looking statements, which speak
only as of the date they are made. The Company undertakes no
obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to
reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date
they were made, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated
events. DATASOURCE: LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. CONTACT: Aaron
Grossman, Investor Relations of LeMaitre Vascular, Inc.,
+1-781-221-2266 Web site: http://www.lemaitre.com/
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