Along with more than doubling sales in 2019 compared to the previous year, Fort Worth biotechnology company Eosera has announced partnerships with new distributors and a move to a new space to handle the growth.
The demand for its ear care products grew so much that the biotechnology company Eosera needed to store inventory in office spaces and a conference room at its previous 5,000 square-foot headquarter in the Cultural District.
It was like paying premium rent for warehouse services. Late last year, the company relocated to a new 10,000 square-foot facility in South Fort Worth. Since then, the production capacity has significantly increased and demand has reciprocated just as much.
“Retailers haven’t been used to having a go-to manufacturer for all ear-care,” CEO Elyse Dickerson said. “Literally, every other manufacturer has one product.” Whereas, Eosera has about eight different products in its line of offerings that provide relief for earwax impaction.
“I think that’s why we’re really starting to build great relationships,” Dickerson added.
And, two of the largest pharmaceutical distributors in North America took notice of the burgeoning Fort Worth company.
Pharmaceutical juggernauts McKesson Corporation and Cardinal Health have formed a partnership with Eosera, expanding the company’s reach further.
Alongside online presence in Amazon, more than 13,000 retail drug stores, including all CVS and Rite Aid locations, carry Eosera products.
Now, the latest partnership with McKesson and Cardinal Health will allow Eosera to reach about 15,000 new independent pharmacies.
Unlike chain drug stores, independent pharmacies typically only receive orders from wholesale suppliers, like the Irving-based McKesson and Ohio-based Cardinal Health.
Together, the two multi-billionaire dollar company serve thousands of hospitals, laboratories, specialty physicians and clinics, alongside independent pharmacies.
“They rely on the distributors to tell them what products they should have on their shelf and what new is out in the market,” Dickerson said. “It really is a huge opportunity for us.”
The outturn of the new partnerships remains to be seen as McKesson and Cardinal Health are yet to disclose the volume they each might order. Eosera expects the order quantities will be “very large.”
After the move to its new facility, the company looks prepared to execute larger orders.
From conception to production and marketing, Eosera conducts most, if not all, business transactions in-house. The company does consider itself to be a manufacturing company, on top of being a biotech healthcare provider.
All in all, the whole operation gets run by about 20 total employees, who wear different hats at different times.
“I kind of like it,” Dickerson said. “Everybody’s fully invested in the success of the company. With that comes just chipping in wherever somebody needs help.”
The manufacturing site can produce about 5,000 units in a day. The company does have the capacity to ramp up production.
The production line currently runs three full-days per week. The other two days are used for prepping or finishing up a production run. Eosera can utilize all five working days to manufacture products if needed, Dickerson said.
The company also has plans to add an additional mechanical product line to its manufacturing unit.
“It gives us a lot more flexibility to run our business and we can control the quality of it and we can keep the cost down and we can employ more people,” Dickerson said. “I see it as a win for the company. And I actually don’t think we would be where we are right now today if we were still using outside manufacturers.”
In 2019, Eosera developed three new products. The company recorded a 128% growth in sales compared to the previous year.
Eosera said it did multi-million dollars in sales in 2019, which was the first profitable year in the five years since its inception.
The company has doubled its year-over-year sales in the last three years. It expects to double its sales again in 2020.
Earlier in January, Eosera furthered its talks with Walmart for a potential partnership. Eosera is hoping to roll out its products in Walmart soon.
“We believe in listening to the market and let the market tell you what it needs, rather than us sitting in a small room, dreaming of products that maybe there is or there isn’t a need,” Dickerson said. “We’ve had success because we’re bringing things that people actually want.”