Report on the supply of dental goods.

Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the supply of dental goods. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/148 (page 9)
    in each case), from fillings and dental plaster to dental forceps and dentists’ chairs. Important contributions to the supply of dental goods (see para. 18) are also made by manufacturers whose output consists only in part of dental goods and who specialise in particular techniques of manufacture, e.g. chemicals or electrical engineering. The most important of such suppliers is I.C.I., producers of dental acrylic materials. 11. The normal method of retail distribution in this industry is for the goods to be distributed to dentists, hospitals and other users by dental dealers (specialist retailers distributing dental goods only), and it is the general practice of users to obtain all their professional requirements, whether they consist of specialised dental goods or not, from their dental dealers. Some manufacturers distribute goods direct to the profession but the great bulk of supplies goes through the dealers. There are no wholesalers in the ordinary sense in this trade; the goods reach the dealers either direct from manufacturers or through sole agents whose wholesale trade is confined almost entirely to goods of which they are the sole wholesale distributors. In most cases the sole agent takes over all the manufacturer’s selling functions, in- cluding the pricing of the goods at the wholesale and retail stages. Such an agent is classed under the A.D.M.T. Rules as the manufacturer of the goods and he is the channel through which goods produced by non-members (includ- ing imported goods) reach dealer members of the A.D.M.T. 12. The following diagram illustrates the channels of distribution to the home market :— CHANNEL 1 CHANNEL(\2 CHANNEL 3 United Kingdom United Kingdom United Kingdom Manufacturers or Foreign Manufacturers Be United Kingdom Sole Agents | | | | | | Manufacturers’ Other Sole agents’ Other — own dealing dealers own dealing dealers . sections, if sections, if | any any Consumers A rough estimate of the proportion of total retail sales which passed through each of these channels in 1948 is :— Per cent. Channel 1 : oe sep te nek te Channel 2 cae si BAe Bi ae ae 40 Channel 3 ee aa , ie ied 10 The diagram is highly simplified and several complications occur in practice. In particular, the function of sole agent is often combined with that of manu- facturer or retailer, and the vertical concerns referred to below not only supply both to their own dealing sections and to other dealers, but also acquire supplies for their dealing sections from other manufacturers and sole agents. 13. In describing the industry we shall first discuss the two large vertical concerns and shall then give a general outline of the manufacturing section and the sole agency section. Finally, we shall give a picture, in some detail, of the dealing or retailing section.