Paulo Maló innovated his way through dentistry and set the foundations for Maló Clinic, leading market brand in implantology and dental aesthetics.
Walk into a Maló clinic in any part of the world and you are bound to run into the founder of the brand, market leader in implantology and dental aesthetics. Dentist Paulo Maló, makes a point of visiting all his main clinics in the countries where the brand is present. He sees to patients and performs surgeries using the techniques which catapulted the group into leader of the market.
Madeira is part of that route and it was during one of his visits that Essential caught up with the man himself. Paulo Maló didn’t need many words to sum up the performance of his clinic in Funchal: «It’s a success! » This performance is based on the «outstanding» demand alone.
Located near to the Lido, the clinic in Funchal is equipped with 35 medical offices and follows the same principal applied to other parts of the country and the World, which is the development of Health and Wellness Tourism: «Here in Madeira it’s still early days, but in the Algarve we have a strong touristic component». Regarding Lisbon, Paulo Maló reveals that 30% of the patients are not Portuguese: «the Lisbon clinic is intended for health tourism, the Macau clinic is intended for health tourism, the Algarve clinic is intended for health tourism and this clinic was thought out for health tourism». That’s why it is incorporated in the Meliá Madeira Mare hotel. «It is not by chance that a lift at the end of the corridor will take you to your rooms».
The space in Funchal has started to provide the medical component with services such as Facial and Body Aesthetics, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, Nutrition, Obstetrics, Otorhinolaryngology, Orthopaedics, Paediatrics, Psychology, Rheumatology and Speech Therapy. These medical services (Maló Clinic Medical) are available at all main Maló Clinics or in some cases where there is potential for an increase in demand, such as Madeira.
Paulo Maló explains that one thing leads to another: «For instance, people who opt to have full dental replacement in many cases also have wrinkles, or a crooked nose, or have difficulties breathing through their nose…that’s when we started to broaden our range and offer other sorts of medical assistance. »
«It’s not about saving lives, but improving the quality of life», explains the dentist who defines Maló as a brand geared towards health and wellness tourism.
In addition to these two components, there is a third, Medical Spa: «we developed the Medical Spa concept. We were the first and only in the world, with operating rooms in Macau. » The next venture in this area is Amman, the capital city of Jordan followed by Dubai and Guangzhou in China. In Portugal, the group owns the Luso Thermal Complex and the Maló Clinic in Funchal also includes a Spa. The next step will be in cosmetics with a new range of products.
The second revolutionary step was the development of a technique which allows «a person to have a set of brand new teeth put in, in a single day, hours even, without having to have any bone transplants». The innovation is mainly regarding the comfort of the procedure as «it does not involve bone transplant» and has a success rate of nearly 100%, whereas previous techniques were only applicable to 70% of the cases. Procedure costs were also “revolutionary” as they were halved per each intervention.
Another innovation is the fixed prosthesis, the Maló Clinic Bridge, which is computer made and guarantees «exactly the same appearance as natural teeth».
Since its establishment, the brand has created 16 techniques and products. Paulo Maló believes that it is this innovation «which allows us to, for instance, take our brand to the United States and establish as market leaders. We are the leading market brand in Australia, Japan and China…».
These innovative techniques have generated a flow of tourists seeking such kinds of treatment, in Lisbon. The demand, according to nationalities, has determined the course regarding the brand’s internationalization and will continue to do so.
Lisbon has the largest clinic in the world, followed by Porto. The list of 22 countries includes Germany, France, Switzerland, amongst others. With a total of 40 clinics and over 100 partners, the group has over 1.500 employees.
The Maló brand markets other products in other areas besides health, such as production of wines and olive oils, agriculture, distribution of frozen foods and cattle production, mainly of Bisaro pigs.
All the above mentioned areas were not thought out as recent ventures. Paulo Maló recalls that his father was a cattle farmer. Having been brought up in those surroundings « I do not find it strange that I am involved in cattle production along with wines and olive oils, if there is anything strange about what I do, it’s taking care of teeth».
