IRELAND\\\


Ireland has seen significant inward


investment from


pharmaceutical companies over many years. Its importance in distributing medical devices across Europe and beyond is perhaps less well known, but 15 of the world’s top 20 medical technology companies have a presence there.


Expanding fast into this


lucrative field is SEKO Logistics, which set up in Ireland in 2007 and last year opened a MedTec European control centre in Galway. Commercial director Terry


Allen explains that the centre mirrors SEKO’s five dedicated MedTec distribution facilities in the US. “Our clients were saying, if we are going to expand with you, you need to replicate this in Europe,” Allen says.


Issue 2 2015 - Freight Business Journal Pharma firms inject growth into the economy The Galway chain, facility


coordinates the European supply


design, including


aspects such as inventory control, process engineering, packaging


quality


management, IT support, sales and market development, and hosts the company’s European call centre. “We hope to achieve the


same synergies and cost reduction in Europe that we’ve seen in the US, though here it’s much more fragmented and country-specific,” Allen adds. He cites complications such as multiple languages, more varied


transport solutions,


differing rules concerning hazardous materials and companies’


differing


registration arrangements. MedTec


companies that


SEKO manages from Galway manufacture products such as


VAT


intravenous feed tubing and advanced polymeris plaster cast substitutes to support patients’ broken limbs. “In the US, smaller of


manufacturers devices


sometimes


medical have


problems tooling up to produce what they’ve designed. We now have fully equipped clean rooms over there, where designers


and architects


of crating and packaging can help them,” Allen says. Galway University has set up similar stand-alone units on its campus, and a similar idea is now being considered in Limerick which SEKO may wish to take advantage of. Alongside medical the


technology, company


manages distribution of vitamins,


healthcare and


beauty products, importing no less than three tonnes per


week of high-end vitamin products from the US. SEKO is an independently


owned network - but not a franchise, Allen emphasises - whose member companies report


into a Chicago head


office. Central functions for the 150 offices in 40 countries include marketing and IT support. There is a single technology


platform worldwide and all data is live. “The client can see exactly what our own staff can,” he says - giving no opportunity for lame excuses if a delivery is missed. SEKO’s growth in Ireland last


year was 27%, largely driven by air freight. Allen comments that the group’s five major US gateways of Chicago, New York, Miami, Atlanta and Los Angeles are well served by wide-body aircraft. He claims lower-deck


The Welsh Assembly hopes to improve access to the A55 out of Holyhead Port so that port traffic does not have to travel through the town. A review involving port management, Anglesey Council, Network Rail and ferry operators will look at potential ways of upgrading roads to reduce the accident risk and hopes this can be incorporated in Wales’s National Transport Plan.


Irish property prices are increasing faster than anywhere else in Europe, only four years after a crash in the construction sector bankrupted some of the country’s largest banks and forced Ireland to request a EUR78 billion EU bailout.


capacity can meet 85% of Irish needs, but is concerned that more transatlantic passenger carriers could scale back to A321s and B757s in future, limiting the company’s scope


to move larger consignments. He is relieved to see,


however, that Shannon Airport’s freighter services have “bounced back very well” in the last couple of years.


Irish News Roundup


The Freight Transport Association says law enforcement authorities must make more effort to shut down illegal fuel laundering operations close to the Irish border. This follows a report by the British- Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) on the “alarming” number of fuel laundering plants and filling stations selling illicit fuel. The FTA has also called for action against those commercial goods vehicle operators in Northern Ireland suspected of using the fuel, to deprive launderers of their target market.


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