Weaker economic conditions in Australia have seen more consumers skip the dentist impacting Abano Healthcare's full year profit result.
Photo: 123RF
Abano owns Lumino The Dentists in New Zealand and Maven Dental Group in Australia.
Its net profit for the year was $7.6m, down 40 percent on last year's figure, $12.6m, however the 2018 result included the company's radiology business which has since been sold off.
A like-for-like comparison with last year's dental business results shows net profit fell 26 percent from $10.3m.
Abano chief executive Richard Keys said while the New Zealand market remained robust, Australia was a different story.
"What we've seen in the last few years is the environment in Australia has not been an easy environment and all the dental corporates have faced this."
He said lower consumer confidence and higher households costs were discouraging people from spending on discretionary items like dentistry.
"Our same store has been down on the previous year which is a combination of the environment we have seen as well as certain other workforce and performance issues."
The first half of the the 2019 year saw Abano buy 16 practices, most of which were in Australia, however it since hit pause on further expansion there.
Mr Keys said Abano intended to add practices to the Lumino network in New Zealand but would largely focus on getting more out of its current practices on both sides of the Tasman.