🔒X-ray equipment maker Kubtec buys former Unilever building in Trumbull for new HQ, production hub

A Stratford-based medical imaging manufacturer that began as a spare-bedroom startup is taking a major step in its next growth phase — buying a former Unilever office building in Trumbull and relocating its headquarters there. Kubtec, founded in 2005 by Vikram and Preeti Butani of Fairfield, has purchased the 158,888-square-foot, three-story building at 75 Merritt Blvd. for $3.7 million, according to property records. The company makes digital X-ray imaging cabinets and equipment used by hospitals, laboratories and research organizations, including systems that help clinicians evaluate tissue samples during cancer surgery.

CEO Vikram Butani said the move is intended to support Kubtec’s steady expansion, as the company adds employees and scales up inventory and manufacturing capacity to meet rising demand. He said growth has been driven in part by the portability of the company’s digital X-ray equipment, which can be moved around hospitals and other medical facilities, making it easier for providers to capture images. “We need more production,” he said. Kubtec currently operates from a 21,191-square-foot building it owns at 111 Research Drive in Stratford. The company has not yet decided what to do with that property. The Trumbull building offers a far larger footprint, and Kubtec plans to convert the first two floors into a production hub — about 50,000 square feet for manufacturing, inventory and office space — while leasing the top floor to tenants. Butani said Kubtec employs 45 people and produces a few hundred digital X-ray machines annually. Alan Fischer, founder and president of Fischer Commercial Real Estate, said Kubtec’s expansion is a positive addition for Trumbull. He represented Sachem Bank in the sale of the property to Kubtec. “It’s a fabulous business requiring high-tech skills and an educated workforce,” Fischer said.

A growing CT manufacturer

Over nearly two decades, Kubtec has sold what Butani described as “thousands” of X-ray cabinets to hospital groups around the country — including Connecticut-based Stamford Health and Yale New Haven Health — as well as national organizations including AdventHealth in Florida, Texas-based Vizient and North Carolina-based Premier. Kubtec’s product lineup has expanded beyond its early focus on specimen imaging into a broader range of imaging systems and irradiation equipment used to treat or test materials in research settings. In 2022, Kubtec acquired specialized surgical detection technology from Spanish medical imaging equipment maker Oncovision — an example, Butani said, of how Kubtec continues to broaden its technology base while scaling production. Kubtec’s growth aligns with broader expansion in medical imaging, as the global digital radiology/radiography market is projected to grow from $3.9 billion in 2020 to $8.3 billion by 2030, according to Allied Market Research.

Growing product portfolio

Butani said the company has repeatedly outgrown its space as it developed and commercialized new products. In 2017, Kubtec moved from leased space in Milford into a larger facility in Stratford. In June 2018, the company bought a 10,000-square-foot building at 111 Research Drive — only to see it severely damaged by a fire three months later. The fire was caused by a forklift truck’s lithium-ion battery self-igniting, Butani said. Kubtec temporarily relocated elsewhere in Stratford while rebuilding on the Research Drive site, ultimately constructing its current 21,191-square-foot building there.

The company has also steadily expanded its product portfolio. Over the past decade, Kubtec received Food and Drug Administration approvals for eight new products, including imaging systems used to create 3D images of tissue during breast cancer surgery and X-ray systems used in seed and agricultural research.

Launching the business

Butani traces Kubtec’s origin back to a turning point in early 2005 after leaving a defense-related X-ray imaging subcontractor and taking time to regroup. “When I left the company at the end of 2004 and was looking for a job, I couldn’t make up my mind, so we took a break,” he said. He and his wife took their then three-year-old son to Disney World in Orlando. During that trip, he said, a friend in the X-ray imaging field suggested starting a company to build digital X-ray equipment that could capture images of tissue samples — work that at the time often relied on film that had to be developed in a radiology department. “My idea was to take that and, instead of film, put a digital detector in the X-ray system,” he said. “I had been in the X-ray field for a number of years prior to that, so I was connected to component manufacturers and vendors.” Butani said he quickly advanced the concept further by enclosing the equipment in a cabinet designed to protect users from radiation while remaining mobile enough for clinical environments. “My wife and I started the company out of our spare bedroom in our town house that we had at that point in Fairfield,” he said. Soon after returning from Orlando, Butani said he met with the head of purchasing at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport and pitched the concept. The result was immediate: a $37,500 down payment on a $150,000 order for two digital X-ray cabinets. “They bought two right then,” he said. “The customer matters, which I learned the first day I went to meet the guy who was the head of purchasing, because he said, ‘I want to give you the order because you came to meet me.’” Nearly two decades later, Butani said Kubtec is preparing for its next chapter — moving into a significantly larger headquarters in Trumbull as it builds out manufacturing capacity to meet demand.