Cariescan and Goals get good news in the USA

By Greig Cameron on Dec 17, 09 10:44 AM in News

The business headlines are quite rightly being dominated by the demise of Globespan.

It is a situation affecting thousands of people not least the 800 or so who have lost their jobs just before Christmas.

There are also a number of suppliers to the airline who will be counting the cost of a large customer going out of business.

But away from that awful news there have been a couple of positive glimmers with two very different Scottish firms confirming expansion plans in the USA.

Dental technology firm Cariescan, which itself grew out of the administration of Idmos, has just received approval from the American Food & Drug Administration to market its main PROtm product.

This will allow the firm to court a distributor and opens up the massive dental diagnostics market there.

It builds on the £4m contract it sealed with Clark Dental earlier in the year.

Meanwhile five-a-side football operator Goals has secured its first centre in Los Angeles.

Construction will start in 2010 with the complex due to open before the World Cup in the summer.

The small sided football market has held up well in the UK during the recession and remains largely untapped in the US.

Generations of young Americans now grow up playing soccer and the mens and womens national teams enjoy an ever growing profile.

Goals will be one of the first operators to introduce the popular five-a-side concept and if it takes off it could prove to be an extremely profitable venture.