26 July 2007 ■ dentaltown.com

shofu corporate profile

By Benjamin LundEditor, Dentaltown Magazine

Since its founding in 1971, Shofu Dental

Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of

Shofu Inc. (Kyoto, Japan), has always focused on

superior quality of its products. The company,

based out of San Marcos, California, is currently

making strides to gain a larger share in the porce-

lain, diamond and cement markets, as well as

innovating new products for the dental profession.

“Shofu is known for quality. We hear that over and

over again – even from our competitors. We’re

the best-kept secret in the industry,” says Shofu

Dental Corporation President & CEO C. Brian

Melonakos. Melonakos was recruited to Shofu in

June 2004, to integrate the clinical and lab divi-

sions of the company, to increase marketing and

educational efforts and to launch more new

products into the American markets.

Right: Shofu Director of Sales Randy Bailey,

Director of Marketing Lynne M. Calliott, and

President and CEO C. Brian Melonakos.

27dentaltown.com ■ July 2007

corporate profile shofu

Eastern BeginningsShofu Inc., was founded in Kyoto, Japan, in 1922 by Kajo

Shofu III, a researcher and entrepreneur who was very knowledge-able about the ceramics industry. The company’s first break-through into dentistry was the development of high-qualityporcelain teeth for dentures. Prior to Shofu Dental Corporation’sfounding in North America, Shofu was almost exclusively focusedon the large Japan market. Some of the company’s products wereavailable to other parts of the world through importers at thattime. After almost 50 years, Shofu decided to expand west and setup corporate offices in Menlo Park, California. It was the first loca-tion outside Japan that was initially responsible for all territories inthe Americas and Europe.

Today, Shofu Dental Corporation, based out of San Marcossince 2001, is responsible for all territories in North and SouthAmerica and sells selected products that are only available in theAmericas for unique market demands. Shofu Dental Corporation’sofferings are more limited than its parent company, but the cata-log is still rather broad, including abrasives, diamonds, cements,direct and indirect restoratives, whitening products, finishers, polishers and other products. In terms of dollar volume, the company’s three most popular products are still its Vintage HaloPorcelain, Dura-White Stones and Brownie Polishers.

With everything that it has to offer, Shofu is not afraid of los-ing its identity as a core abrasives/porcelain manufacturer, but thecompany is aware that it needs to maintain a certain focus in itsproduct development. According to Shofu Director of MarketingLynne M. Calliott, there’s a logical tie between its porcelain andabrasive products. “We’re making abrasives specifically tied toporcelain materials so that we know how to polish and finish them

the best. We’re polishing everyone else’s composites, so why nothave a composite that compliments our polishers,” says Calliott.

While Shofu Dental Corporation still has the freedom to adaptto cultural and market differences – separating it from its parentcompany – it is now working more closely with Shofu Inc.’sresearch and development department. “For the first time we’reworking intimately with Shofu Inc.’s R&D,” says Melonakos.“Shofu’s key R&D people travel quite a bit, spending time with

continued on page 28

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the

result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent

direction and skillful execution; it represents the

wise choice of many alternatives.” – William A. Foster

Shofu Dental Corporation Office

Shofu Training Facility

American and other dentists and dental technicians. They visituniversities, trade shows, dental offices and dental labs and speakdirectly with customers. When a product is developed, but not yetlaunched, samples are sent to each major market for customer eval-uation. Sometimes these evaluations will confirm that we hit themark and other times further changes will be indicated. In termsof the current focus of R&D, it’s to become more of a global playerin cements, restoratives and bonding agents where we historicallyhave not been a strong market player.”

Currently, Shofu has found that it is able to get productsspecifically, if not exclusively, for the American market. This com-pany is based on quality and a long-term focus. Melonakos says itis very different from other companies he has worked with includ-ing those outside the dental profession. Shofu is very medium- tolong-term focused, and not overwhelmingly focused on quarterlyresults. There is a lot of careful planning that goes into productdevelopment and manufacturing processes – which might be thekey to Shofu’s endurance.

One of the new and carefully planned products on Shofu’simmediate horizon include Ceramage, an indirect restorative prod-uct that is about 70 percent zirconium silicate, which is alreadyselling millions of dollars on a worldwide basis. According toCalliott, since the beginning, Shofu has worked with a world-rec-ognized master ceramist to develop and refine it’s porcelains – witha strong focus on colors. The entire range of colors for all of thecompany’s porcelains, including Ceramage, undergo comprehen-sive research with a computerized colorimeter and several studieson thousands of teeth by Master Dental Technician MakotoYamamoto. No porcelain product goes to market unless it meets

with Yamamoto’s approval. “I think Ceramage will present a sortof rebirth to the whole indirect restorative market,” saysMelonakos. “We’re also excited about our zirconia porcelain calledVintage ZR. The CRA has recently identified that zirconia porce-lains on the market tend to have issues with cracking and withtheir firing temperatures; we feel like we have a very significantadvantage there. We also have a new veneer cement coming out,and a new bonding agent arriving in the short-term. Next year wehave a significant new porcelain system coming out.”

Getting the Word OutWhile Shofu Dental Corporation is known among its loyal

client base for the quality of its products, its marketing and corpo-rate image have remained low-key. Melonakos has even mentionedthat as he was being considered for his position at Shofu, one of hispeers gave him a four word analysis of the company – “Great prod-ucts, weak marketing.” Marketing aside, breadth-of-distributionhas also been a contributing factor in preventing Shofu from gain-ing a larger market share.

“I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult for even the largerplayers like Dentsply and 3M to get the kind of support from retailrepresentatives that they have in the past,” says Melonakos. “For arelatively smaller company, like Shofu, it is still harder. It is a ques-tion of resources – not only advertising, but also educationalresources and all the things that go into marketing. But having saidthat, I think we have tremendous potential.”

Historically, Shofu Dental Corporation has been conservativewhen it comes to presenting educational programs or even purchasing advertising to make the company and its products

28 July 2007 ■ dentaltown.com

shofu corporate profilecontinued from page 27

continued on page 30

“The Internet and associated new

communications technologies should

enable Shofu and other companies to

have a more even playing field with

the largest players. Personal relation-

ships continue to be extremely impor-

tant in this industry.– Shofu President and CEO C. Brian Melonakos

Shofu Top Sales Performers

30 July 2007 ■ dentaltown.com

shofu corporate profile

more visible. That is changing now. Relying on Web sites likeDentaltown.com, Shofu America is focused on grassroots cam-paigns and what Melonakos likes to call, “guerilla marketing.”

“We want to make much greater use of the Internet, andthat’s why we’re working with Dentaltown,” says Melonakos.“The Internet and associated new communications technologiesshould enable Shofu and other companies to have a more evenplaying field with the largest players. Personal relationships con-tinue to be extremely important in this industry. We want to besmart. I’ve said several times, to some degree, that we have toengage in guerilla marketing right now. For example, we tell oursales reps, ‘If you just do the same things as the Dentsply rep orthe 3M rep, you’re probably not going to be successful, becausein your territory are five or 10 of them.’ Our guys have to workdifferently – even just using the phone more effectively. We’realso doing more on the outside in terms of working with an out-side telesales firm that routinely follows up on all of our sales callsto try to extend our reach.”

Shofu is also providing more continuing education programs,either by sponsoring them or providing courses itself. “We cur-rently host continuing education programs – especially on the labside,” says Melonakos. “We have dedicated lab education pro-grams around the country both in conjunction with lab meetingsand separately scheduled at different labs. We have also spon-sored some dentist speakers in the past. We will be doing more ofthat in the near future as well.” Shofu’s San Marcos facility is pri-marily made up of offices and a warehouse, but the company ispresently retrofitting it with a dental lab where Shofu plans tohold several hands-on continuing education courses where labtechnicians can improve techniques in building restorations withvarious porcelains and with Ceramage. The lab area will have abench area with room for eight attendees and a classroom withroom for 12. Shofu also recently opened up its new training facil-ity in Kyoto, Japan, where dentists and technicians from aroundthe world can be trained on some of the company’s lab andchemical products.

Given time, loyalty from its customers, strong recognition ofits existing products, a new focus on increasing its market sharein several areas of dentistry, and maintaining its reputation ofoffering quality products, Shofu looks to go from being the“best-kept secret” to a “household name” in the profession. ■

(Portions of this article were taken from an interview withThomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director)

continued from page 28

Ceramage (above) is a zirconium silicate infused indirect restorative, used forindirect restorations, which has virtually identical light transmission as naturalteeth. It can be applied to any type of alloy or as a metal-free veneering materi-al. Ceremage is used for veneer implant substructures, inlays, onlays, and ante-rior and posterior jacket crowns. Its micro fine structure gives it a high tensileand compressive strength and color stability. It is easy to polish and is resistantto plaque accumulation.

Shofu Diamond Points FG (left)are manufactured by high-techrobots under a computer automat-ed environment, untouched byhuman hands, and conform strict-ly to ISO standard and specifica-tion. This robotic environmentensures even distribution of natu-ral diamond particles so that eachpoint can provide precise, smoothand effortless cutting efficiency.Five different grit sizes are avail-able: standard, coarse, supercoarse, fine and super fine.

MonoCem (right), a new advance-ment in resin-luting agents, is athree-step self-adhesive resincement that Shofu introduced in2006. MonoCem will self-adhereto a wet tooth structure andrequires no etching, priming,bonding, silane or drying.

New Releases

Shofu Dental Corporation’s

products reach into almost all

facets of dentistry. Here are a

few of the company’s more

recent offerings: