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.

    62/148 (page 54)
    elsewhere ; and the development of acrylic teeth has provided additional com- petition since the war. The distributors (A.D. Group) state that the retail prices fixed for the sole-agency teeth are at the general market level. A concern of the importance indicated in paragraph 159 must, however, itself play a large part in determining the general market level of porcelain teeth prices in this country, and this level, in its turn, must to some extent influence the price level of acrylic teeth. Other restrictive agreements of the Company 162. The A.D. Co. has, or recently had, certain other restrictive agreements which must be mentioned. There are, first, the current agreements with the — D.M.:Co. and the S.S. White Company of Great Britain Ltd., which are reproduced in Appendix 26. The general effect of these agreements is to oblige these Companies to confine their retail sales of burs to those of the A.D. Co. in exchange for the grant of quantity discounts on their purchases of these burs. The agreements do not, we are told, relate to carbide (semi- permanent) or diamond burs, but only to the normal type of steel bur as supplied by the A.D. Co. and, as will be seen from the agreements themselves, the Companies retain the right to supply competing burs in certain circum- stances. ‘The agreements do, however, represent an attempt to restrict two of the leading dealers’ sales of competing burs. Until recently the A.D. Co. also had agreements with two concerns giving the A.D. Co. the sole right to use certain materials, in the manufacture of hypodermic needles in the one case, and in the manufacture of dental impression compounds in the other. Both agreements were terminated in 1948 at the request of the other party to the agreement and in one case the other party gave “recent legislation ” as a specific reason for ending the arrangements. General 163. Our conclusions on the A.D. Group in relation to the public interest are set out in Chapter 11. Meanwhile, we wish to say that we have been much impressed by the obvious determination of the Group’s management to provide the best service to the dental profession and by the great pride which they take in the quality of the Group’s products.