Evolving with the rapidly changing market, Scapa Healthcare recently established regional leadership roles to streamline

Evolving with the rapidly changing market, Scapa Healthcare recently established regional leadership roles to streamline operations and enhance customer experience in local markets. Matt Ellison, General Manager, Europe & UK, and Ken Robinette, Vice President/General Manager, US & Global Regulatory, share their thoughts and insights about how Scapa Healthcare’s new regionalized management strategy is helping position the organization for sustainable growth.  

Can you briefly explain your roles at Scapa Healthcare?

Matt: I manage the day-to-day operations across all Scapa Healthcare facilities in the UK, including manufacturing & production, health & safety, quality, planning, procurement, commercial teams and also technical & scientific services groups who review with customers new product development to bring new opportunities into the business.

Ken: My role in the US mirrors Matt’s role in the UK. As general managers, we focus on aligning our people, processes and capabilities to provide solutions and value to our customers. Our customers are going through as much disruption as we are during the changing face of healthcare in this pandemic. The most critical task for us to do as general managers is to keep our highly skilled teams motivated to be able to deliver on our customer’s expectations.

What do your new roles mean for Scapa Healthcare? 

Ken: The mission of the new general manager positions is to streamline the Scapa Healthcare business model and get us closer to our customers as we continue to focus on delivering turn-key solutions. The new structure establishes a single-point of accountability in each region, to speed up our responses to customers and stay connected to market changes.  

Matt: As an organization, we are very lean and that facilitates a rapid decision-making process. With the new structure, Ken and I have the ability to define a cohesive strategy that we can work on across both the US and European regions. 

What are your top goals for addressing the European and US markets? Are they different in Europe vs. the US?

Ken: In 2018, we purchased a liquids business that has enabled us to expand beyond our expertise in wound care, conversion, and device fixation. Liquids can be focused in wound care, skin care, cosmetic care, and personal protective care – opening up commercial opportunities with existing customers as well as accessing completely new markets.  

Matt: Consolidating and centralizing some of our facilities benefit customers as we leverage better pricing and hyper-focused excellence of service for a seamless customer experience. In Europe, the Gargrave site acquisition allowed Scapa Healthcare to strategically sell and execute on the competencies we have, opening up new commercial business opportunities for the offering of sterilization, laboratory and warehouse & logistics services. 

How has the global pandemic impacted your strategic planning and goal making for this year? How has customer needs changed because of the pandemic? 

Matt: The pandemic has forced us to be extremely flexible and adapt at a rapid pace. We quickly transitioned our sales process to virtual online business meetings where we showcase our competencies. We take our customers on virtual tours of our facilities to show them what we can do and what solutions we can provide. We are growing through a combination of increased business with existing customers – for example, adding contract irradiation services they need – and developing new opportunities with others. 

Ken: For the US market, the pandemic has really put a strain on the global supply chain. At Scapa Healthcare, we are building surge capacity to ensure uninterrupted supply of our customers’ products. We are focused on increased communication & flexibility, finding alternate suppliers and stocking extra raw materials to guard against supply disruptions to maintain continuous delivery. 

What would you say sets Scapa Healthcare apart from the rest when it comes to the development of commercial products? 

Ken: As an outsource partner, our adhesives business is vertically integrated from raw materials to finished goods. This gives us a unique opportunity and competitive angle. The healthcare industry is traditionally slow to react. Speed wins. Speed in healthcare may not look like it does in automotive, but it doesn’t have to look like it does today. We are always looking for ways to do more in less time. We bring a different velocity to what we do and that sets us apart from other companies in the business. 

Matt: The unique selling point for the European Scapa Healthcare site is that we are a strongly vertically integrated organization across the value proposition. We handle the entire process from product ideation, formulation & mixing, printing & packaging of materials, regulatory activities, sterilization, logistics, export service; all the way through from the “light bulb moment” to shipping across the globe. Scapa Healthcare provides an end-to-end solution that is very valuable to our customers. 

How does Scapa Healthcare differ from other Contract Development Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs)? 

Matt: Our ultimate goal is to provide high quality service across our value proposition to build trust amongst our customers. We are small enough to care but big enough to provide the necessary economy of scale. Talking to our development teams is very helpful to our customers. Our subject matter experts work directly with our customers to answer their questions; and our customers appreciate this as a benefit of doing business with us. 

Ken: Our ability to interact and react quickly brings competitiveness. We are relevant enough to be agile, nimble and lean. We can make decisions theoretically faster than a large matrix organization. We are driving efficiencies and growth through regional management and our customers are able to capitalize on what we are doing. By executing this strategy, we will continue to build our reputation as the trusted strategic outsource partner of choice for healthcare companies.

What are Scapa’s prospects for the future? 

Ken: The healthcare industry is traditionally slow to react. At Scapa Healthcare, we are always looking for ways to do more in less time. We bring a different velocity to what we do and that sets us apart from our competitors. As organizations address supply-chain challenges, Scapa Healthcare can bring reliability and resilience. We are uniquely positioned to capitalize & grow and we continue to be the turn-key solutions provider for our customers, particularly during this pandemic as our customers are exploring on-shoring opportunities to de-risk their supply chain.

Matt: Every day we work closely with customers to develop products that improve people’s lives. The way things are done today will be different in time. Innovating is how we add value to our customers. We leverage technologies where we have provenance – like wound care healing with skin-friendly solutions – to help our customers innovate in their niche markets. We are also constantly searching for unique technologies that enhance our value proposition to deliver differentiated solutions to market faster.