“Our goal is not just to sell products,” says Oded Gazit, head of Amos Gazit, a family-owned company that markets, sells, and supports safety and medical products, “but to provide new and trailblazing solutions. There are many medical products in use in Israel today that are considered standard, and we were the first to bring them to Israel.”
The forty-nine-year-old Gazit is the son of Amos Gazit, who founded the company in 1958. Today, Amos Gazit employs 120 workers at its offices in Petah Tikvah, and, explains Oded, focuses its efforts in two main areas – safety and personal protective equipment (PPE) for industrial workers, police, army, firefighters, and construction workers, and medical equipment that is used in operating rooms and emergency rooms for invasive treatments such as stents, artificial joint replacements, and the like. One landmark product that the company introduced to Israel at the end of the 20th century is the Alcotest breathalyzer, which is used by police to check the blood alcohol content from a breath sample.
Amos Gazit represents over one hundred international companies in the field, including 3M, Dupont, Honeywell, Boston Scientific, Zimmer Biomet, Stryker and Dräger, among others, and has a full-service technical support and logistics department that services and supports all the products they sell.
With the onset of the Coronavirus, Amos Gazit partnered with Livinguard, a Swiss hygiene technology company that developed a face mask that not only protects against the Coronavirus but actually destroys the Coronavirus on contact. Researchers from the Free University of Berlin at the Institute for Animal Hygiene and Environmental Health demonstrated that textiles treated with Livinguard Technology can destroy 99.9% of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). In addition, says Gazit, the Livinguard mask is also antibacterial and eliminates the odors that are found on other cloth masks. Amos Gazit is the exclusive Israeli distributor of the Livinguard face masks, which are sold in various configurations and colors. In addition to the Livinguard masks, Amos Gazit supplies a wide variety of equipment to hospitals in the fight against Corona, including ventilators, monitors, and syringe pumps.
Oded Gazit estimates that the Coronavirus will unfortunately be around for quite some time. “We have to learn to live with it and understand the consequences. It seems it is not very dangerous for most, except for those who have certain pre-existing conditions, but it is very contagious. Even if it doesn’t present a danger to most of the population, it can be very unpleasant. We need to practice good hygiene, wear masks, and in my opinion, if we manage to maintain good hygiene, the incidence of other illnesses, such as the common flu and other viruses, will also decrease. It depends on us. It is our responsibility. We must wear masks and practice social distancing. Don’t hug, don’t shake hands. Life goes on.”
Gazit stresses that his company is continuously on the lookout for new and unique products that can bring practical solutions to Israel. One example he mentioned is a new treatment for hemorrhoids which is less invasive and less painful, and that promises to prevent reoccurrences of the condition. This product will be launched in Israel very soon.
The Amos Gazit company is a second-generation family-owned business. The business is managed by Einat and Oded Gazit as Joint Managing Directors. Amos Gazit maintains excellent relations with its workers, some of whom have been with the company for as long as thirty and forty years. One-fourth of the company’s employees have worked there for at least ten years, which also attests to its excellent relations with its employees.
The overall vision and goal of the Amos Gazit company is prominently featured on its website, and reads, “Our goal is to be the leading company in Israel in promoting innovative and groundbreaking solutions in the fields of medicine and safety, to preserve human lives and improve their quality.” For more than sixty years, the company has lived by these words, and as it continues to introduce innovative devices to these fields, it will undoubtedly continue to do so for many more years to come.
This article was written in cooperation with Oded Gazit.