Business Description:
Cochlear Limited (COH) is a manufacturer and distributor of cochlear implantable devices for the hearing impaired. With direct operations in more than 20 countries, COH distributes its products in Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa. COH offers the following three main products: Cochlear Nucleus 5; Baha System; and Cochlear Hybrid.

Strategy Analysis:
COH strategy is to maintain its market position as the clear leader in implantable hearing technology. COH reputation of delivering the most reliable and safest implantable device provides strong brand awareness with hearing specialists. Management will build on this credibility and its international distribution base to develop product awareness about the Baha device to the larger hearing impaired market. Less than 10% of the profoundly deaf have an implantable hearing device, management expect they can exploit the immaturity of the global market. COH is investing in research to redesign its devices to enable manufacturing to be scaled up from a craft base industry to a production line. Management is also building the business to handle more revenue by investing in marketing and sales resources. Cochlear reported NPAT up 16% to $180.11m for the year ended 30 June 2011. Revenues from ordinary activities were $809.65m, up 10% from last year. Diluted EPS was 316.1 cents compared to 274.2 cents last year. Net operating cash flow was $201.28m compared to $179.55m last year. The final dividend declared was 120 cents, taking the full year dividend to 225 cents compared with 200 cents last year. Looking ahead, the Company reported there is a significant unmet clinical need for Cochlear's products, leading to ongoing demand from the emerging and developed markets. Continued investments in capacity, resources and capabilities together with a new product pipeline will underpin and drive the long term growth.