The emerging “value hearing health” market is creating value for Intricon, the Minnesota supplier of hearing aids and hearing technology. Intricon’s third-quarter financial report Monday revealed a healthy 30 percent increase in revenue from hearing aids sold to consumers in the first nine months of 2018 over the prior-year period.
The growth comes from Intricon’s sales of hearing aids through its “direct-to-consumer” and “indirect-to-consumer” channels. Sales through the indirect channel—via partners such as web-based companies that sell hearing aids to consumers online—grew 41 percent in the nine-month period to $8.27 million. And its direct business, through Intricon’s fully-owned Hearing Help Express subsidiary, grew 16 percent to $5.33 million.
“The value-hearing healthcare space is just beginning to emerge, and we are at the forefront of providing affordable and accessible solutions to unserved or underserved hearing-impaired Americans,” said Mark S. Gorder, president and chief executive officer of IntriCon. “In addition, we believe the forthcoming regulatory changes will provide further tailwinds.”
End User Business Grows
Long a developer of hearing aid components and subsystems for other hearing aid manufacturers, Intricon a few years ago began developing a complete line of hearing aids for resellers. And last year it completed the acquisition of Hearing Help Express to sell its hearing aids directly to consumers. In the meantime it has scaled back its legacy OEM business which supplied other manufacturers with hearing aid systems and components.
Intricon’s Hearing Help Express business offers high-quality digital hearing aids sold over the Internet at prices ranging from $299 to $799—hundreds or even thousands of dollars less than custom products from high-end hearing aid suppliers.
Gorder added that the company recently met with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and intends to pursue 510k regulatory approval for a wireless over-the counter (OTC) self-fitting hearing aid. The new product will be designed for a new category of affordable hearing aids that the FDA will define under the OTC Hearing Aid Act of 2017.