As an author, management consultant and former police officer, local businessman Timothy Dimoff has tried his hand at many professions. This month, Dimoff, with partner John Vitullo, unveils his most recent venture — Omega Labs in Mogadore.
The lab is the only drug testing facility in the region that can detect illegal drugs in hair. (The other three hair testing laboratories in the U.S. are located in the West.)
Dimoff and Vitullo — who owned a drug testing lab in Youngstown for 20 years — have invested $2 million so far in the 20,000-square-foot facility and the technology, which includes $200,000 drug confirmation computers. The lab has the capacity to test 750 samples a day.
The two hired lab director Tom Donahue, who has worked in other hair testing labs, and two forensic chemists to run the lab.
They hope to attract a national clientele base eventually, although selling the lab’s services has not been a priority yet, says Dimoff, who bypassed the venture capital route to avoid the pressure of fast returns.
“We didn’t want to be under the gun,” he says.
With a $700 million and growing national market for drug testing services, he may not have to look too hard for customers.
The main benefit of hair drug testing (over urine testing) is the history that the results show. Every half-inch of a strand of hair carries a 30-day history, says Dimoff, who worked the narcotics beat as a police officer. The standard test, on 1 1/2 inches of hair, will screen for cocaine, marijuana, opiates, methamphetamine and phencyclidine (PHP). Dimoff adds that any positive result is tested again, then confirmed.
“We’re bringing technology into the area that’s not existent here,” Dimoff says. “The growth in the area is going to be contingent upon new technology.”
But it’s not just the cutting-edge technology that makes Omega unique. Dimoff has tied the lab into an umbrella of business services he calls the Workplace Solutions Group. He has moved his consultancy practice, SACS Consulting & Investigative Services Inc., under that umbrella, and has so far attracted two other workplace safety services firms.
“All of a sudden other entities wanted to be a part of us, so we expanded the focus,” Dimoff says.
Each company, including SACS, will be moving within the next few months to the Mogadore facility which houses Omega Labs.
When asked if he has seen a concept like this succeed elsewhere, Dimoff assures that it is one-of-a-kind.
“We predict that others will follow, but there’s always an edge for the person who does it first,” he says.
How to reach: Omega Labs, (330) 628-5748; SACS Consulting & Investigative Services Inc., (330) 633-9551
