“The thinking was that it would be less bureaucratic in an eastern state, and that the subsidies would be better than in the west. It was the right decision,” she said.
Her various enterprises blossomed and evolved over the years, culminating in the founding of S&V Technologies in January last year. The company now even has a US subsidiary in Salt Lake City.
S&V posted turnover of nearly 2.5 million euros (US$3.5 million) last year. Kreiner expects it to grow by one-third this year based on lens sales, as well as a thriving anti-wrinkle products division — for humans.
She employs 32 people with another five to join this year.
“There are no global players active in this area that are able to crush medium-sized firms with a major marketing operation,” Kreiner said, adding that her few competitors — in Canada, France and the US — are all smaller than S&V.
The main limit to her business’s growth is a lack of vets able to perform the implantation procedure, which is why she now organizes training weekends for animal doctors from around the globe.
Participants have come from as far as Australia, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan and the United States to learn the procedure in the company laboratory on eyes harvested from animal cadavers.
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