As part of an exclusive interview with Audiology Worldnews on the day the Demant leader announced an interim management statement anticipating 24 – 28% revenue growth in 2021 (up from its new year forecast of 23 to 27%), Nielsen stressed the hearing health sector’s ability to resist challenges even as strong as pandemics.

˝The fundamentals of the industry are very healthy; Corona has definitely proven that,˝ declared the Demant CEO.

Underlining prevailing demand in a business relying on persons with hearing loss, Nielsen argued that even lockdowns cannot squash the hearing market. ˝First of all, we are dealing with a chronical disease that has no correlation to Corona, meaning that if you miss out in a period, the user is still out there,” he asserted.

˝So it’s different to selling hotels and ice-creams. It is a chronical disease and the demand is, in reality, steady and of a nature related to how many senior citizens live in the world, so even if there are restrictions and things that prevent this from taking place, there will be a recovery and also a significant element of pent-up demand. So when the clinic opens again there will be more users than normal coming in to seek help,” continued Nielsen.

Demant itself has seen strong year-to-date performance, driven by, among other factors, recovery from the pandemic, a positive impact of the hearing care reform in France, and the success of new flagship product, including Oticon More and Philips HearLink hearing aids.

˝We are cautious people always, and trying to deal with realities, but it is a company in good shape,˝Nielsen confirmed. ˝Across our many different businesses these days, we are performing well, and also better than expected, and therefore have come out with an upgrade to our initial expectations for the year, and that relates to a better than anticipated—even though we were optimistic—recovery of the hearing healthcare market as we see vaccinations being rolled out across the world.˝

Watch the Audiology Worldnews website for the full interview with Demant CEO Søren Nielsen on the hearing care market, Brexit, Oticon More, and the challenges facing the industry.

Source: Demant interview