Mr Lee, how has Prague proved to be the best choice for Osstem Europe’s new European headquarters, and what are some of the programmes you are working on?
Our global headquarters initially pursued a strategy of ensuring our success and a strong presence in Asia-Pacific countries, and now because of our globalisation strategy, we are headed towards becoming the fourth largest implant supplier in the world, and our eyes are now on Europe. We chose Prague for our European headquarters because of its location in the centre of the European continent but also because of the availability of multicultural talent.

Prague is the right place to build Osstem Europe into a true European company. Here, we have established our training and education centre and after-sales service centre. We also have logistics hubs to support our 46 dealers all over the continent, including in the UK and Ireland.

Our partners in each country organise training courses in their own regions in the local languages according to our standardised training curriculum and protocols—we call this programme Osstem OnSite. Now that we have established AIC in the heart of Europe, our plan is to diversify the experience of Osstem OnSite by inviting local clients to our training centre in Prague.

We have also continued to offer our online education programme, Osstem OnDemand, releasing a new video every third Tuesday of the month.

After a three-year break, our academic symposium, the Osstem-Hiossen Meeting in Europe, will take place at the end of October in Rome in Italy and in London in the UK next year.

Aside from the programme organised by Osstem Europe, our global symposium, the Osstem World Meeting, will also be back next year in Istanbul in Turkey.

Mr Song, what would you like our readers to know about your products?
The mission of our company has been the same since it was founded in 1997: to help dentists provide excellent treatment service to contribute to the improvement of human health. Our products are still developed with this goal in mind.

We are particularly excited about our SOI implants. “SOI” stands for “Super OsseoIntegration”, and it is really great for implant stability even in poor bone conditions. We have received positive feedback from our dealers and our clients about the product. In addition to SOI and our portfolio of guided bone regeneration products, since last year, we have been offering our own bone grafting materials, including bovine and synthetic bone materials called A-Oss and Q-Oss+.

We have a number of other new products, but are particularly proud of our K3 dental unit chair, which has sold over 35,000 units worldwide since its 2013 release, with enormous 37% unit sales growth in Europe last year. In May, we launched our new implant line, KS system. KS is another level of implant, and when compared to other implants, the KS system can better endure the forces and stress dispersion around dental implants, perfect for our clients who want to expand their product portfolios.

Mr Kim, could you share a bit about the special initiatives that Osstem Europe is currently involved in?
In 2020, we ran a global fundraising campaign under the hashtag #VoiceOfTogether to honour the healthcare workers and first responders on the front line battling the coronavirus, and the proceeds were donated to the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. This year, we are directly collaborating with the foundation to contribute to the common ground of the two organisations’ missions: empowering people and their communities to achieve their full potential. This year’s proceeds will be utilised specifically for Ukrainian refugee children and their families. The online fundraising campaign will start on 1 July on the foundation’s platform and will continue until the Osstem-Hiossen Meeting in Europe, which will be held on 28 and 29 October.