RADLINK INC.


Redondo Beach – Profiled February 2006

Despite the credit crunch’s impact on other medical imaging equipment manufacturers, Radlink Inc. has more work than it can handle. That’s been a mixed blessing.

Nearly three years ago, when the Business Journal profiled the company, Radlink had just moved from Torrance to a larger headquarters in Redondo Beach. One of the private company’s biggest investors, Thomas Hacking, had assumed the chief executive position.

Since then, revenues have doubled every year, earning the company a place on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies in 2007 and 2008. Revenues hit $5 million last year, but Hacking admits a backlog in orders could slow the growth rate this year.

The company’s lead product is a filmless imaging system called the CR Pro. It uses proprietary laser and fiber-optic technology and costs $45,000 for the base unit, a relative bargain compared with the $150,000 machines at some imaging centers. That type of pricing has made the machines in demand from West Los Angeles to rural clinics in India. The company also has expanded into offering networking software that enables physicians to send images to expert radiologists at larger hospitals for interpretation. But the company recently has been slowed by the problems a key vendor has had in supplying parts, something Hacking hopes to soon have solved.

The company may turn to a third-party manufacturer to speed up production, and retrain its current assembly workers to handle installation and service.