What's New at GMI

Richard Powell didn't know, way back in the mid-1990s, what the Internet was. He couldn't believe anyone would send his son, Ben, money for baseball cards the teen sold on the Internet.

But they did. The checks piled up -- 50 cents here, a dollar or two there, $50 for a coveted Jose Canseco card -- and Powell got an idea. If it worked for his son's sports cards, why not for his field of medical technology and equipment?

Powell had wanted to go into business for himself. And he knew the market, after two decades in sales for big companies in the Twin Cities and the Upper Midwest. So he hired a programmer and set up shop in cyberspace in 1996.

"I knew I had done the right thing. ... The very first day it was up, I got an order," Powell said. "From Chile. Somebody sent me money from a foreign country for a piece of medical equipment, and it turned out great."

Ten years later, the business Powell founded, Global Medical Instrumentation Inc., or GMI, is still going strong online.

The company, with headquarters in Ramsey, remanufactures, sells and services medical and scientific instruments.

Powell, 49, started GMI with grass-roots financing, including credit cards. The company had one investor, later bought out.

GMI's remanufactured instruments typically cost half what the manufacturer charges for a new model and come with the same warranty, said Powell, who has a business degree from the University of North Dakota in his native state. Even at the discounted price, a single piece of equipment can fetch tens of thousands of dollars or more.

The equipment GMI sells typically gets used in clinical analysis, chemical analysis and biotech applications at research universities, hospitals, laboratories and private companies. The privately held firm has customers in more than 40 countries plus such local clients as 3M, Medtronic, the and the University of Minnesota. Biotech research hubs in Boston, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle also account for many orders.

Staying visible

GMI works hard to stay visible on the Web, devoting one of its 14 employees to the task, said Tom Fagrelius, GMI's vice president of sales and marketing. As a result, GMI often appears above manufacturer sites when users search Google. Yet as much as GMI depends on the Web, one of its strengths is that it is not a strictly virtual company.

"In our business, you've got to have the bricks and mortar too," Fagrelius said. That distinguishes GMI from many that have little more than websites and post office boxes, he said. GMI has a shop with engineers and technicians who rebuild, validate and document their work on each instrument.

GMI, which started as a click-to-order site, now has salespeople to help clients choose the right instrument. Prices include training sessions for customers who fly to Minnesota and stay at GMI's expense while they learn how to operate and maintain their equipment.

Fagrelius, a Minneapolis native who has a bachelor's degree in biology and microbiology from the U of M, worked as a researcher before he went into scientific equipment sales for large companies. One day he stopped at GMI hoping to make a sale when he realized he had stumbled across a competitor. He and Powell hit it off, and Fagrelius, 48, joined GMI in 1999 to help improve the company's Web technology.

"If we were in the Stone Age of the website when Tom came on, we moved forward into the Rocket Age pretty quickly," Powell said.

Mitch Sanders, chief technology officer of Boston-area start-up ECI Biotech, is a longtime customer who calls GMI "the best at what they do in the business."

Said Sanders: "The beauty of GMI is they sell you equipment that is almost brand-new, or [is] brand-new, and they have a great ability to follow up to make sure they service the equipment they sell."

GMI rented office space in Albertville and Eagan before buying its 13,000-square-foot headquarters. Powell and Fagrelius figured they would have enough room to last the decade. But they're already planning to build additions that will double or triple its space.

Powell's son, meanwhile, tired of online card-selling after a few months and moved on to other hobbies.

The expert says: Mike Ryan, director of the Small Business Development Center at the University of St. Thomas College of Business, said GMI could face new competition if equipment manufacturers move into refurbishing and serving their equipment the way the Ramsey firm does.

"A lot of times, manufacturers create this after-market competition by keeping prices so high," Ryan said. "That goes along for a few years and smart people like GMI take advantage for a while. Then the manufacturers realize there's money to be made and they get into it."

GMI, however, appears to have a strong foothold, and customers often are loyal to such companies even when brand-name manufacturers try to compete, Ryan said.

GMI -The Smart Choice:

Substantial savings short term and long term
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40 to 80%
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