Sep. 16—STEWARTVILLE — When a major growth opportunity arose in July,
Minnesota Medical Technologies
quickly ramped up expansion plans by raising $4.4 million from local investors in 30 days to more than double the size of their facility.
Minnesota Medical Technologies makes a medical insert to control fecal incontinence. The myMiracle device is made of soft silicone, with a liquid-filled bulb.
In July, MMT leaders learned that its largest competitor, Denmark-based Coloplast, is making big changes in Europe. The European Union is adding new regulations that would be costly for Coloplast, so the company is opting to pull several products, including its fecal incontinence device, from the market at the end of 2023.
Coloplast sells about 3 million of its fecal incontinence products in Europe a year. Minnesota Medical makes about 400,000 devices a year, all of which are sold in Europe.
"It's an opportunity for us to jump start that market and capture 3 million devices. Coloplast is literally telling their customers that they should switch to our product, which is great," said MMT CEO and President David Jonas. "That means we're going from zero to 100 mph really quickly, which is why we reacted so fast."
After the rapid-fire fundraising, Rochester's AB Systems will soon bring ground on a 15,000-square-foot expansion to add to MMT's 6,500-square-foot manufacturing facility in Stewartville's Schumann Business Park.
The plan is to try to complete the construction in January and then set up the expanded manufacturing line with the goal of being up and running in April 2024.
"We found out about this opportunity in July and by April, we're going to go from making 400,000 a year to making 5 million. It's an exciting time for us," added Jonas.
The company has 14 employees on staff now. That number is expected to grow to almost 30 in 2024.
Jim and Philip Conway, who launched MMT in 2015 with partners Lonnie Boe and Sarah Grinde, had always planned to expand the Stewartville operation. However, this opportunity sped up that plan by at least a few years.
While Minnesota Medical's 175 investors have always been local farmers and doctors, this expansion brought the company to the attention of the
Southeast Minnesota Capital Fund.
That Angel investment fund is led by retired Mayo Clinic executives David Herbert and Harry Hoffman.
Hoffman said he and Herbert, as well as their investors, were very impressed by MMT, which is a later stage company compared to the start-ups that they usually finance.