3M Co. is more than just Post-It Notes and Scotch tape in office supply rooms here.
The St. Paul, Minn., company’s Irvine-based 3M ESPE Dental Products employs 280 people locally making some 2,000 products for dentists.
The unit’s general dentistry products run the gamut: tooth filling materials, adhesives, cements, tooth impression materials, abrasives and crowns.
3M also distributes dental ceramic products made by Ceradyne Inc., a Costa Mesa company better known for bulletproof vests.
The 3M operation is part of a dental products herd here that includes Orange-based Sybron Dental Specialties Inc. and Glidewell Laboratories Inc. of Newport Beach.
“It’s a very competitive industry,” said Dena Robertson, 3M ESPE’s plant manager and top local official. “We’re constantly trying to grow and become more competitive. Everyone has that same challenge.”
3M, which had $18 billion in sales last year, doesn’t break down its businesses by revenue. Analysts estimate its dental device business does $400 million to $500 million in yearly sales.
3M Health Care Markets, which 3M ESPE falls under, is the largest of the company’s seven major business units with $2.1 billion in sales for the first half of the year.
“We’re a leader in the products we compete in, either No. 1 or No. 2,” Robertson said.
The dental business doubled its size in 2000 when 3M Health Care bought ESPE Dental AG of Germany. At the time, ESPE had $150 million in yearly sales.
“That clearly was a key strategy for us,” Robertson said. “Going forward, the emphasis is more organic growth than acquisitions. But there will be some of each.”
Demand for dentistry is growing with baby boomers keeping their teeth longer, increasing dental plan coverage and more interest in aesthetic and specialty procedures, according to a report from Rye, N.Y.-based brokerage Gabelli & Co.
“The demand for ancillary dental service such as cosmetic dentistry has grown significantly as patients strive for the ‘Hollywood smile,'” Gabelli analyst Jennie Tsai wrote earlier this year.
The dental products market is ripe for consolidation, according to Tsai.
“There are hundreds of mom-and-pop-owned dental manufacturers that are candidates,” she wrote.
3M could be among those buying, though Gabelli doesn’t follow the company. Possible acquirers cited in the report include Sybron and the industry’s other big player, Dentsply International Inc. of York, Pa.
3M ESPE has a 110,000-square-foot plant on McGaw Avenue near the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
Along with production, human resources, finance, technology, customer service and distribution are handled in Irvine.
The unit operates somewhat close to the vest. At the plant’s entrance, a blue sign makes it clear that no cameras are allowed in the building. Robertson also declined a request for a plant tour, citing company policy.
3M ESPE’s customers are general dentists, restorative or cosmetic dentists, and children’s dentists. The company uses distributors, trade shows such as the California Dental Association meetings and 3M sales representatives to push its products.
Besides that, Robertson said the company has a program targeting what it calls “key influencers” within dentistry,specialists who are willing to endorse its products.
The dental products maker also has a plant in Germany, north of Munich. 3M ESPE has what Robertson called “total market coverage.”
“We see our biggest opportunities in China, Brazil and India,” she said. “We already have sales presence in those countries. There’s a very high demand for dentistry now in the emerging markets.”
The Irvine and Germany plants ship to developing and other countries, she said.
3M ESPE employs more than 2,000 people overall.
A focus for 3M ESPE: cosmetic dentistry.
The company’s Supreme, which came out about three years ago, is a “restorative” material to repair fillings and other problems. The material uses nanotechnology that Robertson said allows for “higher polishability,” or a whiter smile.
3M ESPE offers Supreme in “40 different shades of white,” Robertson said. She said it caters to the more aesthetic markets that want their teeth whiter and whiter.
New products are geared toward aesthetics, she said, drawing on 3M’s history of innovation.
“New products comprise typically 25% to 35% of sales, so we keep inventing and improving products and that keeps us in the forefront of technology,” Robertson said.
Research and development,unlike many device makers based or operating here,isn’t done locally, according to Robertson. It’s handled out of St. Paul and Germany.
“These are products that are changing continually,” said Dr. Frank Curry, a Newport Beach dentist.
“A year from now, we’ll have totally new products,” he said.
Curry said he uses 3M ESPE adhesive agents for crowns and inlays, along with cement for thin, fragile porcelain veneers that are bonded onto teeth in order to improve their appearance.
“They’re very good at making these products,” he said. “I’m sure that they’ve gleaned from their long-term history of other forms of industrial adhesives,3M is known for adhesives all the way from Scotch tape on up.”
Curry said he gets 3M ESPE products through a distributor. The company makes representatives available from time to time to deal with “very specific questions and show new products,” he said.
