PLANO, Texas, July 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AUSTIN MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. (OTC Pink Sheets: AMTK), announces a 45% increase in sales for the second quarter of 2004 over second quarter 2003. Additionally, sales grew in the first quarter of 2004 by 44% over first quarter 2003 representing nearly $500,000.00 in multi year contracts.
Kurt Tarter, President and CEO, states, “Our market remains strong and our pipeline of new sales is stronger. Our partner relationships are kicking in and proving to propel our sales growth. Being in a $2.1 Billion industry, we expect the strong sales growth to continue to the end of the year. Based on our current pipeline of business, we expect double digit sales growth to continue into next year. Our current base of customers remains solid with less than 1% attrition.”
About Austin Medical Technologies, Inc./eyeDirecti(TM) (Brand)
Austin Medical Technologies delivers “DIRECT” from the manufacturer to the Surgeon, the only technology based, “Single Source Supply Solution” for custom sterile surgery trays made up of 80% of all disposable surgical devices utilized in surgery. Currently the company has contracted with 1200 eye surgery centers including the 2 largest eye surgery centers in the USA. The market for custom sterile surgery trays is a $2.1 Billion market here in the USA.
Austin Medical is dedicated exclusively to the Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) market. Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC), also called outpatient surgery, and same-day surgery, refers to surgical procedures which are complex enough to require a dedicated operating room and specially trained staff, but do not require an overnight stay. According to 1996 U.S. government statistics, ambulatory surgery centers account for 31 million or 44% of the total surgeries performed in the United States. Five million surgeries were performed on eyes. New surgical techniques such as laser surgery allow procedures to be done more quickly and/or with less surgical trauma.
Under the brand name eyeDirecti, Austin Medical is initially focused on Ophthalmology owned and operated surgery centers which is the fastest growing segment of the ASC market, growing by 25% per annum, consisting of 2,500 practices with 15,000 surgeons performing over 5 million surgical procedures annually at a supply cost of $400,000,000 per year. Austin Medical is positioned to capture $40,000,000 (10%) of this $400,000,000 market within the next 4 years. Visit our e-commerce site at http://www.eyedirecti.com/ .
Note: Any statements released by Austin Medical Technologies, Inc., or any of its affiliates that are forward-looking, are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Editors and investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements invoke risk and uncertainties that may affect the Company’s business prospects and performances. These include economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors discussed in the statements and in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Austin Medical Technologies, Inc.
CONTACT: Keith Tarter of Austin Medical Technologies, Inc.,+1-972-370-0197, or investors@austinmedtech.com
