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IRELANd

Kuehne + Nagel became the first company to win Good Distribution Practice (GDP) accreditation from the Irish Exporters Association at the end of last year. The IEA’s life sciences group introduced the GDP “passport” for firms handling chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology materials, diagnostics tools and medical devices, as a quality benchmark to support one of the few thriving sectors in the shrinking Irish economy. The IEA, Irish Medicines

Board (IMB) and life sciences manufacturers spent two years developing the voluntary code. To achieve the passport, logistics service providers must train operations and sales staff as well as transport sub-contractors to GDP standards; their premises and storage systems must meet strict quality criteria; and they must appoint a GDP ‘champion’ at senior management level. Individual drug companies

have their own demanding requirements of suppliers. “Engagement pharmaceutical

with customers

with the goal of developing long-term partnerships can take anything from six to 24 months,” says David Sadlier, K+N’s business development and solutions director. “Throughout this engagement process a lot of bodies may audit you, but customers even more so – they look beyond your processes to aspects such as your corrective actions and quality and sustainability strategy.” K+N has a pharmaceutical retail licence from the IMB, allowing storage of product for more than 48 hours at its warehouse close to Dublin Airport. It is also the first company to win Authorised Economic Operator status across all its Irish sites. The company is winning additional business in the pharma sector and from FMCG clients through its partnership

approach, helping the company to grow its outbound airfreight volumes and increase its share of the market last year. Inbound traffic into Ireland for K+N was “steady”, Sadlier says. While some customers are binary (simply ask for the best rate A to B), he points out that where high- value or highly regulated products are involved, quality, efficient delivery and security coupled with the ability to adapt to changing market needs becomes very important. For larger customers it has become more of a consultancy rather than a transactional relationship. “It’s their overall business cost you talk about, not transport. You’re trying to get them to see the supply chain as a success factor rather than a cost factor.” Nevertheless, transport cost is the main variable. Ocean freight rates in

Local know-how, global connections

An unforeseen consequence of the recession is that Irish imports have slowed faster than exports, says Marshall Boyd, sales director for DSV in Belfast. A reduction in industrial

inventory levels and consumer spending, not helped by an uncompetitive exchange rate and a rapid increase in

westbound

freight rates, has kept a firm lid on imports. Conversely, the

horticultural

sector has held up reasonably

well,

boosted by exports of peat and compost from the likes of Westland and Bord na Mona. Mu l t i n a t i o n a l

freight forwarders came relatively late to Northern Ireland but have been able to contain their losses thanks to their ability to combine local expertise with purchasing power. Hence DSV’s business is down by single digits rather than the 30-40% suffered by many local freight forwarders, Boyd says.

Thanks to its global connections, the company was able to organise the transfer of 40 loads of out-of-gauge industrial cooling production plant from Thailand to a remote part of the US. The consignment never

acquisition by DSV in 2007 – he could never have bid for such a contract. DSV is also present in the

Republic of Ireland, where it is involved like many major forwarders in the

particular are “very fluid”, Sadlier says. In the heyday of the liner conferences, customers could assess rates quarterly but now they are fluctuating weekly - and have almost trebled over the last year out of Asia. Airfreight rates have not escaped the upward pressures

driven by capacity reductions worldwide coupled with the knock-on effect of a faster than expected recovery in Asia. The overall airfreight market saw a reduction of more than 20% in 2009, but growth of between 3% and 6% is forecast for 2010, Sadlier says.

ISSUE 1 2010

Kuehne + Nagel hopes for GDP growth

From an Irish perspective, overall road freight volumes fell by over 8.5% in 2008. Sadlier expects to see further deterioration of 20% when 2009 figures are confirmed. The recession in Ireland has seen a rebalancing of the economy away from domestic demand to export activity, he comments.

DSV claims to be outperforming local forwarders in Belfast

touched Northern Ireland, but the deal was controlled from there. As an independent road freight operator and forwarder, however – Boyd was part of Campbell Freight before its

burgeoning pharmaceutical sector. The company opened a temperature-controlled distribution warehouse at Naas, west of Dublin, in April. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36