Biolase Inc, Irvine, Calif, reported net revenue of $8.7 million for the second quarter of 2019—a decrease of 29% compared to the second quarter of 2018. In addition, U.S. laser revenue was $2.9 million for Q2 2019, a $1 million decrease compared to U.S. laser revenue of $3.9 million for Q2 2018.
The company further reported that U.S. consumables and other revenue for Q2 2019, which consists of revenue from consumable products such as disposable tips, increased 2% compared to Q2 2018.
Outside the United States, laser revenue declined to $2.0 million for Q2 2019 compared to $4.0 million for Q2 2018, primarily due to generating an order backlog from international distributors as we continue to seek more favorable pricing and payment terms.
Todd Norbe, president and CEO of the dental laser company said, “Our second quarter performance reflects the impact of changes we made to drive our go-to-market strategy and strengthen the long-term growth prospects and profitability of our business. We are realigning our direct sales team to achieve these goals and have added new sales talent by actively recruiting through a new assessment process to hire the right personnel. During the second quarter, we also discontinued our imaging business that was selling at a loss and took steps to hold pricing and eliminate extended payment terms in our international business.
“At the same time, we saw continued growth in our Model Market revenue, which increased 31% year over year in the second quarter. We had great success with a new go-to-market sales strategy that we rolled out to the pediatric markets in Los Angeles/Orange County and Dallas. For this new program, we increased training and collaboration with the customer that resulted in a more than 60% increase in our customer acquisition. We expect to roll out this initiative in additional select geographic areas in the U.S. in the fourth quarter and are optimistic about this exciting new sales program, which is about putting education first.”
Meanwhile, according to Norbe, “prudent cost reductions” allowed the company to reduce operating expenses by 25% and increase gross margin by almost 370 basis points in Q2 despite lower revenue.
