Essential News

Alajuela, Costa Rica. November 2022. The U.S. company DDS Lab, one of the largest laboratories in the production of dental solutions in the United States, has announced construction of its first production facility in Latin America. The plant will be located in the Grecia Free Trade Zone (ZFG) within the Costa Rica Green Valley mixed development project in the country’s western region. Among the products the company will be offering from this new operation are crowns, bridges, dentures, and implants used by dentists to restore patients’ dentition.

 

The a.i. minister of foreign trade, Paula Bogantes, commented, “We are working hard in the foreign trade sector to strengthen the competitiveness of the regions outside the greater metropolitan area, the idea being to promote them as investment destinations and improve the required enabling conditions for companies to set up and create jobs in those regions. As a result, DDS Lab, one of the largest laboratories in the production of dental solutions, has announced that it will build its first Latin American production facility in the Grecia Free Trade Zone. This operation will mean formal job opportunities for Costa Rican, especially those in the western area, in addition to fomenting productive linkages with other economic sectors.” 

 

Jorge Sequeira, managing director of CINDE, noted that “for CINDE, development of the regions outside the GMA is a priority. The project being announced today for the western region shows the potential the regions have to provide the conditions for companies to set up and grow in this country. This achievement was made possible by the coordination and joint efforts of real estate developers in the area, INA, FEDOMA, the foreign trade sector, local governments, and many other key stakeholders who have created a friendly and attractive ecosystem for investors.”

 

Costa Rica was the selected Latin American country due to its optimum conditions for the organization’s growth, such as highly skill human talent, an ideal geographic location, and a stable and business-friendly political environment. 

 

“We believe that the Costa Rican educational system is substantially sound and the programs that are underway will enable us to find highly skilled employees for our business. Moreover, Costa Rican government agencies such as CINDE make the process of generating new negotiations much simpler and more attractive. For this reason, we are happy to join other medical device companies operating in Costa Rican territory in expanding the offering of high quality products,” said Bart Doedens, CEO of DDS Lab. 

 

The company projects an investment in the country of up to approximately $15 million in upcoming years with the construction and equipping of its industrial facility for producing dental devices. 

 

DDS Lab also hopes to open up more than 300 new job positions in the next few months and plans to increase its payroll to as many as 1,000 employees in five years. The professional profiles it will be needing are focused on administration, technology, and dental health. 

 

“We are very grateful and thrilled to receive DDS Lab as one of our new tenants. After you live through a recession, there is nothing more exciting than seeing how transnational firms continue to put their faith in the country’s development. We also firmly believe that the western region has the talent and potential to continue growing and developing,” mentioned Arnoldo Estrada, project director for the Grecia Free Trade Zone. 

 

At present, DDS Lab has facilities in Tampa, Florida, in the U.S. and ShenZhen, China, generating 1,200 jobs that provide service to more than a million customers per year in the United States. In addition, DDS Lab is expanding and looks to venture into Canada and Europe in the upcoming years. 

 

The groundbreaking ceremony, held on November 3, marked the beginning for DDS Lab in Costa Rica, which expects to start operations at the facility in August 2023. 

 

For more information, visit the DDS website and the Costa Rica Green Valley’s social media sites. Zona Franca Grecia, site of the production facility, is a project developed by Portafolio Inmobiliario.

 

The company offers dental services with fixed and removable products such as crowns and bridges, dental prosthetics, partials, implants, orthodontic restorations, Fierce mouthguards, and CAD/CAM restorations. It provides intraoral scanners and digital printing and consulting facilities and also offers online dentistry courses. At present, DDS Lab has two main offices in the United States: California and Dallas, Texas, and one production facility in Shenzhen, China.

 

DDS Lab offers its customers a unique online service portal, MyDDSLab, where professionals can upload prescriptions, submit photos, track cases, and view their account online 24 hours a day.

 

Portafolio Inmobiliario is a leading developer of residential, shopping center, office, and mixed use projects in Central America.

 

With sustainability at the core of its strategy, Portafolio Inmobiliario creates and transforms cities of the future in spaces that spark a sense of pride and belonging within the communities in which it operates. It is also committed to measuring its footprint and mitigating its negative impacts while enhancing its positive ones based on four action areas: “eco-nstruction”, circular operation, collective empathy, and communication and governance.