Copyright © 2012 Massachusetts Capital Resource Company. All Rights Reserved.
Archive for April, 2009
BOSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL. Friday, April 10, 2009 – by Julie M. Donnelly
Watertown-based thermometer-maker Exergen finds itself in the enviable position of growing in a down economy. The company will begin selling its consumer product, the TemporalScanner, at Target on May 1 and plans to add 10 percent to its workforce over the next year. Exergen’s thermometer is already on sale at such chains as Wal-Mart and Babies R Us, as well as wholesale clubs Sam’s Club and Costco.
“All we have left to go after are Rite-Aid and CVS,” said Exergen CEO Frank Pompei.
Pompei developed the technology for the TemporalScanner while he was working as a researcher at Harvard University and launched the company in 1980. Exergen is private and never received venture capital, bootstrapping it all the way with donations from family and friends, and loans from banks.
“There is a price to accepting venture money,” Pompei said. “They own part of the company. I decided early on I wanted it to be private.”
While the company will not reveal revenue, Pompei said Exergen sold 500,000 consumer units in 2008. The units retailed at $50 each. Pompei said the company sold 25 percent more consumer models in 2008 than in 2007.
Exergen executives said the professional side of the business – selling a similar device to hospitals and doctor’s offices – was down slightly in 2008. Exergen said the third part of its business, selling industrial thermometers to test the temperature of sensitive machinery, or even eggs in a chicken coop, is the one part of the business that has been hit by the economy as businesses defer buying new equipment.
The TemporalScanner’s retail price of $50 is much pricier than the digital under-the-tongue model most people have at home. Those retail for under $10. But unlike the under-the-tongue type, the TemporalScanner is noninvasive. It only needs to be slid across the forehead. The scan picks up the temperature from the temporal artery, which is very close to the skin and gives an accurate reading.
Until now, the most accurate temperature measure for children, and certainly the most dreaded, has been the rectal thermometer. Linda Ciampa, a nurse at Milford Regional Medical Center referred to the Boston Business Journal by the company, said studies have shown the Temporal Scan is quicker and just as accurate. She uses the scan to monitor a new mother’s temperatures right after childbirth.
“One great thing about the scan is that the patient can actually be asleep when you do it, you don’t need to wake up a baby or a new mother,” she said.
Exergen has 100 employees and plans to add another 10 by the end of the year. Three employees have been with the company from the start, and the average tenure is 12 years. The company manufacturers the thermometers right in its Watertown plant and is the only U.S. company to manufacture consumer thermometers domestically.
Where it can, Exergen uses Massachusetts-based companies as vendors. North Attleborough-based Adams Graphics, for instance, makes the packaging and labeling for the TemporalScanner. Vice President of Sales Mike Ruo said he has seen revenue from Exergen, one of the company’s five biggest customers, rise by over 25 percent. He said revenue overall for the business is up 10 percent so far this year, at a time when many graphics and printing companies are struggling.
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Copyright © 2012 Massachusetts Capital Resource Company. All Rights Reserved.