CEO of Invisalign Braces Maker Is Confident in China
*By Conor White*
With the company's first manufacturing plant in China up and running, the chief executive of Align Technology, the maker of Invisalign orthodontics, isn't concerned about a possible trade war between the United States and China.
"By the end of the year we'll have a good, contained business in China, and be able to service our Chinese business," said Joe Hogan, the CEO of Align Technology. "So I feel great about the moves we've made there, given the talks that are going on."
Align's stock was the top performer on the S&P 500 in the last year, soaring 132 percent in 2017. The company's management has said sales could top $2 billion by 2020.
To reach that goal, the company is reaching out directly to consumers who may need its Invisalign products: clear, plastic teeth aligners taking the place of traditional metal braces.
"We have a really strong consumer business, in the sense that we advertise to consumers, and direct them toward doctors," Hogan said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar. "So the consumer awareness part of this is a big part of this strategy also."
Consumers are increasingly aware: Invisalign shipments are up more than 30 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of this year.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/stars-align-for-invisalign).
CES 2024 starts this week in Las Vegas. It's set to feature swaths of the latest advances and gadgets across personal tech, transportation, health care, sustainability and more. Here's a list of the coolest announcements so far.
Astronauts will have to wait until next year before flying to the moon and another few years before landing on it. NASA on Tuesday announced the latest round of delays in its Artemis moon-landing program.
The Biden administration has enacted a new labor rule that aims to prevent the misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The labor department rule going into effect Tuesday replaces a scrapped Trump-era standard that lowered the bar for classifying employees as contractors
The KC-46 was to be the ideal candidate for a fixed-price development program. Instead, it has cost Boeing billions, and made industry wary of such deals.
Dave Long, CEO and Co-Founder of Orangetheory Fitness joins Cheddar to chat trends in the industry for 2024. He updates us on the company's plans to expand and what the state of the economy has meant for business.
One of the world's largest renewable energy developers will be getting hundreds of wind turbines from General Electric spinoff GE Vernova as part of a record equipment order and long-term service deal.
A moon landing attempt by a private US company appears doomed because of a fuel leak on the newly launched spacecraft. Astrobotic Technology managed to orient the lander toward the sun Monday so its solar panel could capture sunlight and charge its onboard battery.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced that 100,000 businesses have signed up for a new database that collects ownership information intended to help unmask shell company owners. Yellen says the database will send the message that “the United States is not a haven for dirty money.”
