How to launch a $135M business in 16-months

About the project

Sol-Millennium is the second-largest manufacturer of vaccine needles and syringes in the world. They hired me to launch a new medical supplies distribution business, starting with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Challenge #1 – Limited Time

There was no existing product line for PPE, and a limited window of opportunity to source and sell products before demand related to COVID-19 declined.

Solution #1 – Vendor Partnerships and Customer Pre-Commitments

I used my experience as a PPE subject matter expert to establish vendor partnerships in China, securing manufacturing capacity and competitive pricing.    

Due to the extreme demand for PPE, I got pre-committed sales from key medical distributors and used these volumes to negotiate pricing with our vendors. As a result, I built enough margin to pay for the expedited ocean and air freight. This high level of customer service and reliability brought repeat customers, even becoming the prime vendor for some of the largest distributors in Canada and Brazil.

Challenge #2 – No Existing Customer Base for PPE Products

Sol-Millennium had no existing customer base for PPE products. Despite the increased demand for PPE, numerous new market competitors made large-volume sales challenging.

Solution #2 – Regional Supply & Demand

My understanding of the global medical supply distributor market allowed me to identify key markets for growth. For example, medical distributors based in the US focused on American customers due to higher margins, group-purchasing contracts, and customers demanding consistent service. This made the US a poor market for Sol-Millennium. Instead, Sol-Millennium focused on selling in the Canadian, Scandinavian, and Brazilian markets due to essential market factors, including opportunity size, regional market pricing, and the lack of significant distributors focusing on the region. This strategy immediately succeeded as we took the largest PPE market share in British Columbia, Denmark, and Sao Paolo during the pandemic.

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Outcome

I launched the medical supplies business unit in August 2020 and generated $76M of revenue by the end of the year. 2021 saw an additional $59M of revenue.

As of 2022, Sol-Millennium has provided 80% of the medical supplies in British Columbia for the COVID-19 pandemic, 40M masks to the country of Denmark, and is the #1 selling mask in Sao Paolo.