A DENTAL laboratory company in North Yorkshire has taken a first bite of more than £4 million out of the Alternative Invest-ment Market.

1st Dental, which has its HQ in Harrogate, reported today that after last week's successful flotation as a public company it was now ready to chew up other laboratories, with a new acquisition expected in three months' time.

Andrew Garner, the company's 37-year-old chairman, who also has laboratory branches in Scarborough, Blackpool and Eastbourne, said today he was delighted to have made a successful start on the road to his dream of creating for the first time a national network of dental laboratories.

These will be able to provide tailored "designer" gnashers as well as crowns, bridges and specialist implants to consistently high standards, "in much the same way as opticians can expect good designer glasses from their technicians whether they are in Glasgow or Cornwall".

The company approached the market having raised £2 million through an institutional placing, valuing it at £3.6 million. By the end of Thursday - the first day of trading - its share price climbed steeply from 27p, closing at 33.5p, pushing up its value to £4.24 million

Mr Garner predicts the same massive growth of dentistry in the high street as has occurred in optometry over the past ten years.

He said: "There are 2,600 dental laboratories in the UK and most of these are independent. 1st Dental believes that these businesses are ripe for consolidation to improve cost efficiencies by centralising core functions such as administration, purchasing, finance and management.

"We intend to acquire laboratory businesses to build a consolidated network providing a comprehensive range of services to the dental industry."

Mr Garner's management team consists of dental technician Ian Bryer, the 42-year-old managing director, Roy Butterworth, 55, finance director, Bradley Moore, technical director who won the 1984 Guilds Silver Medal for outstanding academic achievement in the field of crown and bridgework, and non-executive director Grahame Sewell, chief executive of GTS Ventures Ltd, a private equity company.

1st Dental began with Mr Garner's buyout of Aesthetic Dental Laboratories operations in Harrogate, Scarborough and Blackpool and recently bought out GAC Dental laboratories of Eastbourne.

Having inherited a huge customer base, including private dentists throughout the UK, last July the new company secured the tender to supply dental services to the Ministry of Defence for at least three years.

Updated: 13:15 Tuesday, May 07, 2002