Healthia Limited is a publicly listed organization aiming to turn out to be one of Australia’s top allied health businesses that offers podiatry, physiotherapy and related services. They are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with the opening of a $26.8 million Initial Public Offer (IPO). Healthia is the holding corporation that owns and runs over 70 MyFootDr podiatry clinics throughout Australia. They also have the foot orthotics lab, iOrthotics and have a 50 per cent share of DBS Medical which sells medical products. The IPO income were utilised to invest in purchasing of more podiatry centers and some physiotherapy and hand therapy clinics. They think that Australia’s highly fragmented allied health industry offers a business prospects for them to supply bundled services to meet the need for physiotherapy and podiatry solutions because the populace will become older. They hope to do this by helping clinicians reduce management burdens of their practices. The vertically integrated companies including iOrthotics and DBS Medical will be useful to drive buying synergies, and to enhance the procedures of current clinics, producing cost savings with the increased size and enhance practice management.
One of the leaders of MyFootDr, Greg Dower, was a guest on PodChatLive, the podiatry chat show. Greg has become the Chief Business Development Officer at MyFootDr. Greg is the podiatrist for the Australian cricket team and is the lead in the Elvis Presley tribute group called the Blue Cats. This reference to Elvis has received Greg a lot of attention in the business press in connection with the IPO of Healthia. In the PodChatLive episode, Greg talked to the hosts concerning his path coming from being a sole practitioner to co-owning a group of over 50 podiatry businesses (which employed over 100 podiatrists) prior to the IPO and further expansion. He discussed the extensive mentoring program they've got for new graduates, and the work smarter and harder beliefs. At the end of the chat he quickly showed us round his Graceland influenced dining room.