Zimmer Biomet CEO Ivan Tornos said the company’s transition to a fully dedicated sales force is going better than expected, leading the orthopedics firm to raise its sales and earnings expectations for 2026. 

Zimmer announced the restructuring in February. The plan involves shifting the company’s 2,500-person U.S. sales force to fully dedicated specialists, rather than independent contractors, and focusing them on higher growth segments. 

Tornos told investors in a Wednesday morning earnings call that the company is seeing less customer disruption and sales force turnover than initially expected. Zimmer is adding 200 tech sales representatives, he said, and has locked in the top six independent distributors. 

“This is a growth strategy,” Tornos said. “We’re going to have the best sales force in orthopedics.”

The company is still on track to complete the restructuring by the end of 2027. 

Zimmer Biomet raised its revenue growth expectations for the year to a range of 3.9% to 4.9%, from a prior range of 2.5% to 4.5%. The company also increased its adjusted earnings per share forecast by a few cents. 

There’s still some risk ahead, J.P. Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus wrote in a research note, as about half of the sales force restructuring still has yet to be completed. However, he viewed the quarterly results as “incrementally positive.” 

“With better-than-expected results following softer competitor prints, we think these results point to share-taking for Zimmer in 2Q,” Marcus wrote. 

Zimmer’s U.S. knee business grew 1.4% in the quarter, better than Johnson & Johnson’s 1% growth but below Stryker’s 6.1% growth, Stifel analyst Rick Wise wrote in a research note. Meanwhile, Zimmer’s U.S. hips segment grew 5.9% in the second quarter, ahead of both of its competitors.