New Verticals to Grow Double this Year Sunil Khurana, CEO and MD, BPL Medical Technologies

India today faces the challenge of making quality healthcare affordable and accessible to the masses. Medical devices sector acts as an enabler of healthcare ecosystem by delivering proper diagnosis, prevention, better clinical outcomes, and rehabilitation. This sector is poised to witness high double-digit growth in the coming few years. However, we still depend greatly on imports to cater to needs of this sector.

India faces an enormous shortage of hospital beds with just approximately 1 bed for every 1000 population (WHO) as against world average of approximately 4 beds per 1000 population. The healthcare delivery system would continue to witness growth due to increased government spending, coupled with growth in private investments in healthcare. Medical equipment account for approximately 20 percent of total costs incurred in setting up a new hospital; hence, they would witness similar growth with new projects and existing replacement demand due to changing technology.

We at BPL Medical are committed to address these current challenges. As we continue to grow as an organization, we are developing more and more indigenous products, which are well suited to meet the requirement of our country’s healthcare needs. In the current financial year, we plan to launch many new products to strengthen our portfolio and compete in the market.

Over the course of last few years, BPL Medical has been able to transform its brand image from a cardiology-focused company and established its presence in other segments, such as critical care, imaging, women and child care, home care, and consumables. This has helped us transform from a product supplier to a solution provider to most of the equipment requirement of mid- and large-tier hospitals.

We have recently partnered with Lowenstein from Germany for ICU ventilators. With this partnership, we have added several models in mid segment of ICU ventilators to deepen our presence in the critical care segment.

Last financial year (FY19) has been a decent year for us, having registered 26 percent growth over previous year, and we are in the right direction to achieve another year with high double-digit growth.

In the current financial year, we believe our capital equipment, such as ultrasound machines, C-arms, X-ray machines, anesthesia systems, and ICU ventilators will be our growth drivers. These products have been well accepted and appreciated by the users to deliver accurate diagnosis and needed clinical outcomes.

In terms of geography expansion, we have made some inroads into certain specific overseas markets last year, and we are confident these few selected geographies would contribute significantly toward the growth in the current year.

Overall, BPL Medical is well positioned with its large product basket, and we are confident that with the booming market of medical devices, we are on the right path of a strong growth trajectory for years to come to serve our customers in India and beyond.