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| Syneron Medical CEO Amit Meridor |
Israel's Syneron Medical ($ELOS) is charging into 2015 with big plans for growth, touting preliminary fourth-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts' expectations and eyeing a rapidly expanding market for its body-contouring and laser devices.
The Yokneam Illit-based company raked in $74 million in the fourth quarter, beating the average analyst estimate by nearly 10%, Bloomberg reports. The news is a feather in Syneron's cap, as the company has struggled to boost sales for its fat-zapping ultrasound machine, the UltraShape, and its tattoo-laser product, the PicoWay system. In October, Syneron began a U.S. sales push for UltraShape and then ramped up commercialization for its tattoo-removing laser product during the following month.
CEO Amit Meridor is counting on the two devices to drive sales growth in the U.S., which represents about 40% of the company's overall revenue, according to the Bloomberg story. The company has doubled its U.S. sales force since 2013 to about 70 people, but Meridor plans to bring the team to 100 individuals by the end of 2015. The CEO wants to hit $20 million in UltraShape sales this year and bring in as much as $100 million in sales for the device by 2017.
"The bottom line will be good and positive, better than 2014, but it still won't capture the maximum potential of the profits," Meridor told the news outlet. "That will come in 2016, when volume will grow to the level that this organization can bring."
Promising numbers bode well for Syneron as it eyes a burgeoning market and wards off competition. The global market for body-contouring devices is estimated to reach $2 billion by 2017, according to a recent report by Maxim Group, and fat-reduction devices that eliminate fat cells by freezing or pulsing them with ultrasound waves brought in $150 million in revenue in 2013.
But Syneron faces some stiff competition from Zeltiq Aesthetics ($ZLTQ), which in July turned a surprise profit in Q3 earnings, sending its shares up almost 30%. The Pleasanton, CA-based company attributed the promising numbers to stronger sales and marketing for its CoolSculpting technology.
Still, Meridor remains bullish about Syneron's opportunities after taking the reins of the company in February. The CEO said he doesn't need to poach Zeltiq's market share to chart growth for Syneron. "The market will be able to make room for those two companies," Meridor told Bloomberg. "We will be able to grow very fast in the next two years."
- read the Bloomberg story