Healthcare
Business Services
Carve-out
Founder-led
Liberty Dental Group is one of the leading dental laboratory groups in Europe. We speak to Hidde Hoeve, CEO of Liberty and founder of Excent, about Liberty’s market leading position in Europe, leveraging AI to become a consolidator in a highly fragmented market and the company’s strategy for expansion.
Liberty Dental is the go-to supplier for dental prostheses and orthodontics for dentists and dental clinics across Europe. Liberty was established as an independent business in 2023 in a carve-out from European Dental Group (‘EDG’), combining Flemming Dental, Excent, and Artinorway Group. The business now services over 5,000 dental clinics in Europe positioning the dental group as a market leader.
Hidde co-founded Excent
Family link to dental industry
Carved-out his own line, taking an entrepreneurial route after completing his dental technician scholarship
The European dental lab market is valued at approximately €10bn today and is expanding. 80% of dental lab work is non-discretionary, related to trauma or ageing, and this is borne out by the industry’s resilience during previous economic downturns. An essential service for a large percentage of the population, the industry’s ability to improve the customer’s quality of life lends itself to a sustainable and non-cyclical business model. Market growth can be attributed to higher demand for dental prostheses and orthodontics, underpinned by an aging population, by the impact of modern diets on dental health, as well as a society that is increasingly mindful of health and aesthetics.
There are over 35,000 dental labs across Europe and 85% remain independent. This provides significant consolidation opportunities in a highly fragmented market, and this would benefit end customers, including dentists and patients themselves. Many independent labs don’t have the investment or infrastructure to stay ahead of technological advancements, such as computer-aided milling and 3D printing that promise to lower costs and dramatically speed up the production of high quality dentures and orthodontics. A decline in lab technicians and demand for a higher-level of precision calls for further digitalisation. Liberty is well placed to become a leading consolidator in the market with the ability to offer future partners the use of cutting-edge technology. Liberty in turn benefits from Oakley’s support and know-how, including capital, a rich track record in M&A and internationalization, as well as experience helping companies to digitalise their business models.
The relationship between a dentist and their dental lab is very sticky: digitisation can make it even stickier. Dentists will often pick just one lab to work with, since it involves a full technology integration. So the more digitally enabled the patient and production ‘journey’ is, the stickier the relationship. Everyone wins from digitisation: the dentist can be more efficient, freeing up chair time to see more patients; the patient experiences a more pleasant, less intrusive experience, which can also be faster (quicker production of prosthetics, and fewer mistakes that need to be corrected through more visits to the dentist); the dental lab gets more business as digitally-enabled dentists prefer to partner with digitalised labs.
Hidde Hoeve
CEO — Liberty Dental Group
Oakley’s support ensured a very smooth carve out from EDG, executed in a way that benefitted all parties. With Oakley’s support, Liberty has now signed almost ten bolt-on acquisitions across Germany, Benelux and the Nordics. Liberty has also diversified its business by expanding significantly into orthodontics. Oakley’s Portfolio team has also supported Liberty to build out its senior management team, hiring a COO and M&A Director, while also helping Liberty arrange a revolving credit facility to support M&A.
In partnership with Oakley, Liberty has developed a rich pipeline of acquisition targets across its core markets including in Germany, Europe’s largest dental market with c. 13,000 active labs, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Nordics.
