Health Supplier Segment: Reynard Health Supplies Australia
Presenter: Wayne Bucklar
Guest: Jason Daisley
Guest Bio: Jason Daisley is the managing Director of Reynard Health Supplies Australia. Jason has held senior management roles for over 20 years in a wide range of businesses and industries and has advised both state and federal governments on a range business processes.
His industry experience ranges from Food Service and Accommodation Management, to Transport, property and Environmental services. As well as senior management roles, Jason has been an owner and investor in 4 of these successful business since 2000 including Reynard Health Supplies.
Segment Overview
In another of the Health Professional Radio “Health Supplier” series, the managing director of Reynard Health Supplies, Jason Daisley discusses the health procurement system from his perspective as a supplier to both the government and non-government health sectors and explains the Reynard Health Supplies range of product ranges including skin care, dry wipes, surface sanitising, hand hygiene and prep pads and swabs. Reynard Health Supplies is a leader in developing and manufacturing both dry and pre-moistened wipes to a range of industries across the country.
Awareness of market requirements and price competitiveness enables them to maintain a position as a highly professional and successful wipe producer. Reynard Health Supplies has offices in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and is expanding its network to encompass sales into the growing European market. Jason Daisley says it is personal service, along with flexibility and professional values that make Reynard Health Services a leader in the wipe market.
TRANSCRIPTION
HPR – Health Professional Radio
Wayne: You’re listening to Health Professional Radio. My name is Wayne Bucklar and with me this morning, I have Jason Daisley who’s the managing Director of Reynard Health Supplies. Good Morning!
Jason: Good Morning Wayne!
W: Thank you for your time this morning, and as you know, we’ve been doing a series looking at suppliers to the Health Industry. And I know you are a supplier to the health industry. Can I start with what does your firm supply and what is your geographic target point?
J: Reynard Health Supplies – the brand started in 1999 in New Zealand and we started supplying our products in Australia, UK and Europe in 2009. We’ve got a wide range of patient care, cleaning, infection control products made up of high quality wet wipes, dry wipes, prep pads and swabsticks – and we sell them across Australia to both public and private health government.
W: Let me come back to your products and services in a moment merge, but given that range of products and the time that you’ve been around, I guess you could characterize the firm as being an old hand in health supply. Can we talk about the procurement process for a minute?
J: Sure.
W: What is it like supplying, are you exclusively in health and the government or are you across the board in health?
J: We could totally sell to public and private health as well, and aged care as well across all the states and territories in Australia. We’ve got two supply contracts with Queensland Health. First one started back in 2011 with two products, 70% Alcohol Prep Pads and Bath and Bed wet wipes. And also a panel of contract with New South Wales Health, about fifteen of our products, and a couple of contracts in Victoria for public health. And outside of that, we’ve got a few supplier arrangements with the private health sector as well.
W: Alright. Jason, most of our audience is hospital-based clinicians and we’ve got a share of management people as well. I’m always curious to get some sense from your side of the fence about what the supply process is like, you know, the procurement process. Now, do you have a view on how it fits?
J: Yeah, I think all government health departments in Australia have the same goal basically which is to supply the best quality products for public health facilities but at the best rate. And often there are new stages, new or nearly new structures and plans for procurement. And at the end of that is a huge organization, a chance to supply a huge range of different products. In relation to Queensland Health procurement process, we found the tendering process to be thorough and detailed without any unnecessary complication which is really important. Their tender assessment process is efficient and decisions made promptly. I suppose for a supplier’s point of view, you cannot ask anything more from that point of view. To date, we’ve been supplying products on the sole supply basis to Queensland Health and I must say the efficiency of the manner and time units for that change is effective and it is extremely good and at times achieving what they’re trying to do, they do it very efficiently and effectively and from our point of view that makes it simple and easy to do. The benefit of this is that we can offer the best price for our products as we know how much we’ll be supplying and that the change will appear quickly. In some other cases in other states, we don’t know if we’ll supply one hundred packs or something or million. We don’t know when it will start and how it will roll out, so this adds cost to doing business which ultimately always reflects on price paid by the costumer. For summary, for our products because I know it differs with other types, I take Queensland Health is on the right track.
W: That’s good to hear. If the range, you know, as you say the range of products that goes to hospitals is enormous and I know from the other side of the fence, talking to the procurement staff who work in the government – from their point of view, their ambition is to make it simple, to make it efficient and to make it fast but also they’ve got obligations to meet the government requirements as being transparent – being fair in developing the market and those sort of things, is there anything you’d like to seek change in the procurement processes?
J: I think just looking at Queensland there is not much really. There’s just probably a couple of things and these are really not criticisms of the process but more opportunities to enhance it. So when calling to Tenders and quite often they would specify the current products and its brand and the codes but they won’t provide any details of the specific specification of that product. So sometimes it’s quite hard to match what is being provided to them to make sure you’re offering a lot alike and giving the best price. So it would be useful to have that information and also to understand if there are, if there is the ability to vary that specification on what those parameters might be so we can optimize the products and the offerings to small companies like ours, we can do that, we can tweak the products to best seek what the clients need. And the second thing is, and again not necessarily a simple thing to do but now that we’ve identified the cut-off and the same products will come up on two or three different tenders because it falls across two or three different types of requirements. And I’m sure the opportune people are looking at it and they keep trying to consolidate that demand and leverage government’s volumes to get the best price and certainly that would be really nice opportunities for improving things.
W: I’m sure that those who are in the procurement list will appreciate that because of the useful insights to hear from both sides of the fence. Jason, coming back to your products and the offerings that you have in the marketplace, if you’re talking to clinical staff or patients, what are the things that you tell them about your firm? What would you like them to know?
J: Well I suppose, we have a very narrow range of products that we supply. We try to specialize in the five areas that we do work. So I think the five areas that we work in are basically the patient-care wet wipes, from Chlorhexidine wash cloths to pre-op to basic skin cleansing wipes and of course our very popular bath and bed and shampoo products. All of these products have been developed to be the highest quality from the ingredients through to the softness of the cloth which is most of them being picked from the highest standards of cotton. I suppose just getting across all that quality factor, it’s not a race to the bottom and that we understand that these products are used in health environments. And you know, we do optimize the quality of them to the best that we can. And to date we’ve been successful, the same applies to the other range of patient care, dry wipes and all our service cleaning and disinfection wipes as well, and prep pads and swab sticks. So I suppose just getting across that even though we are a small relatively new brand to the market, you know, it’s just basically re-assuring but that the technology and the effort that goes into designing our products is second to none and we’re determined to provide Health with the best quality products but also the best price.
W: And Jason is there any misconceptions that clinicians or users have about your products and services, things that drive you nuts and keep you awake at night. Is there anything what we can solve while we’re on the air about that?
J: I think the biggest misconception is that, because most of these products and it’s not just ours, but most in this particular category, are made in China. There is a misconception of basically they often come across to anything made in China is somehow inferior. The reality is, our products are designed by our UK Team for our customers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, so the design is focused on the market in which we sell the products. And the manufacturing in China nowadays, which is world class you know from the world of – Filtration and Clearance, Sterilization and automation processes. All our products are at least as good and in some cases better the most made is the US and Europe. Also, I’d say beware of brands that highlights the “Designed in the UK or USA” but in very small letters somewhere in the pack but it’s made in China and so it’s just that misconception I think at the end of the day, for our particular range of products, and it’s a bit of a concern. That said, as an Australian company, we’re always exploring ways to look at whether we could make our products locally, and in fact we are actually currently working with a local manufacturer of similar products to see whether or not we can make some of our more popular products in Australia which is very exciting.
W: Sounds like I’m para-phrasing but I think the message is that the design and quality are not a function of its geographic place of manufacture.
J: Yes.
W: And putting “Made in China” on the label does not make it inferior. That’s a good insight. I think we found that over the last twenty or thirty years with all sorts of manufacturing and I think it’s probably in the current year as well, because we often hear the complaint from our listeners in hospitals that they use products and services and they feel like they’re on the end of, you know, a thousand lowest cost supply complex, a bit low as far as shut all those years ago with NASA and I think it’s important they understand the brand behind it the company behind it. So, Reynard Health Supplies is your firm and you’re a supplier that takes great pride, from the sound of it, in your products and services and how they fit to clinicians and patients.
J: Yep, absolutely. So the logo is a fox because ‘Reynard’ is French for ‘fox’ and that has some personal history within the owners of the business and it’s an easy brand to notice and the packaging’s there so I think you summarized that very well. We are passionate about to delivering good products to the market.
W: Jason, thank you very much. You’ve been listening to Jason Daisley from Reynard Health Supplies, a supplier for the Health Industry in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. This is Health Professional Radio, and my name is Wayne Bucklar.