HTL's American dream

Ozorków-based HTL-Strefa, a producer of laboratory and medical equipment, currently has a 22-percent share in the $60 (zł.181) million global market for safety lancets. In the US, HTL satisfies 50 percent of the local demand for safety lancets.

"We were lucky. After the US introduced a ban on the use of 'sharps' in laboratories, we entered the market with our products as the supplier of Roche. Our lancets are safe, as they can only be used once. The threat of, for example, HIV contamination, is non-existent," explains Andrzej Czernecki, CEO of HTL-Strefa.

Within the next three years the company wants to increase its share in the global safety lancets market to 35 percent. HTL also produces personal lancets, which are used five times a day by diabetes patients. The value of the global market for these tiny, single-use devices is estimated at $66 (zł.199) million, 11 percent of which belongs to HTL.

In order to meet growing demand for its products, HTL is currently constructing its second plant in the Łódź Special Economic Zone. Production there should be launched in the middle of 2007 but Czernecki is already eyeing up the US for further investments.

"We would like to be even more present on the American market and are thinking of actually building a factory there. Sending one container of lancets to the US costs $4,500 (zł.13,583) and we send two to three a week. This makes for large costs and we would like to reduce them," he explains.

HTL is planning to spend $30-40 (zł.91-121) million on expanding production up to 2010. Recently, it also changed its status from sp. z o.o. to SA, and Czernecki says he cannot exclude a bourse debut, as the money could finance acquisitions.

"If we do take over a company, it will be in America and not in Poland," Czernecki says.