Manufacturing the amalgam that dentists use to fill cavities is not the sexiest of businesses. When Hunter Hall portfolio manager Craig Hood strayed out to the industrial Melbourne suburb of Bayswater to take a look at SDI with Southern Cross Equities broker David O'Halloran , he was the first institutional investor to visit the company in three years.

SDI had been shunned by the market for a long time following its float in late 1985. It had disappointed on prospectus forecasts, and a foray into selling products outside its core competencies, particularly dentists' chairs, lost money.