12 >> 11 careers. There is


Issue 1 2020 - FBJ Ireland


only with the specifics of Northern


Ireland trade rather than the full customs clearance training aimed at people working for deepsea forwarders. For those that do manage to


take advantage of any training, it could be a great opportunity to upskill and further their


also “tremendous appetite” among


companies for their employees to undertake training, when and if it becomes available. Of course, HMRC’s own


resources in Northern Ireland are currently very limited. As in other parts of the UK, the agency had been scaling back its local presence, concentrating its remaining overseas trading expertise on its Salford headquarters. While on the face of it,


Northern Ireland will be in an enviable position after Brexit – part of the EU single market but also trading with the rest of Great Britain and enjoying any free trade deals that the UK government strikes with third countries – there could be pitfalls, Leahny warns. The EU might demand export declarations for goods moving from Northern Ireland to mainland GB, as it would want


to know what goods are leaving what is, effectively, its territory. It’s important to remember that the protocol would only cover the UK and EU’s trade situation as it currently stands; if either subsequently signs new trade deals with third countries like Japan or the US, Northern Ireland’s status would become increasingly divergent. There is a sense of frustration in Northern Ireland, says Leahny,


///IRELAND


that as the rest of the UK rides off into the new Brexit dawn, the province will be left to deal with the consequences indefinitely. On a brighter note, Northern


Ireland could benefit from increased foreign direct investment from the US and other countries. One issue that also needs


to be resolved are transport operations. While the protocol


Which is the biggest freight company in Ireland? It’s a difficult question to answer, as much depends on what you measure and how, but Gary McCabe believes that Kuehne + Nagel has a good claim to the title. McCabe, commercial


director for the multinational forwarder and logistics company, suggests that it is number one in sea


freight


and airfreight and number two in road (with DSV’s Road arm taking the top spot in that sector). For contract logistics, it


is very hard to quantify the biggest player. Suffice to say, McCabe is very satisfied with the business he has. KN may not have the biggest logistics


footprint in Ireland – although its two large sites near Dublin airport are pretty impressive – but it turns over a lot of business on the space that it does have. More importantly, perhaps,


it is among the most profitable, around 2-3 times more so than its nearest competitor, he suggests. This he attributes to KN’s arguably very conservative, but evidently highly profitable business model. “We’re very thoughtful about the market – we only play in certain sectors.” These include life sciences, food and perishables and industrial/ aviation, all areas in which it has developed considerable expertise. Also, adds global key account


manager, Simon Tobin, KN Ireland, the company’s policy of having 11 senior people with that job title is also very important. For the customer it means “a single point of contact”, which in turn means that KN is very successful in retaining its customers. At KN, key account manager


is more than just a title, Tobin suggests. These people are real experts in their field, able to hold their own with customers in their specific expertise and, very often, to supplement it. McCabe adds: “Our key


account managers have a level of understanding of the market that’s unrivalled, sometimes


even expertise


that the customer itself doesn’t have. If we’re looking for such a


Ireland’s life-saving link


Forwarders and logistics companies that serve the pharma and biotech industry are nothing new in Ireland, but Agility commercial manager for Ireland Victor Vargas believes that his company is unique in transporting radiopharmaceuticals. As an island nation, Ireland is of course very dependent on suppliers in Europe for these materials, which have to be delivered in a timely and secure manner to clinics and hospitals by dedicated, specialist vehicles all over the country. It is a race against the clock, as radiopharmaceuticals have very short shelf-lives so precise logistics is necessary if patients are to receive lifesaving medicines on time. Agility can reference no less a


person than the senior physicist at Cork University Hospital, Admire Dzingwa, who says: “Agility has consistently provided us with a reliable service in delivering critical medical


supplies in a timely fashion. Over the years, patient treatments have proceeded smoothly and on time thanks to Agility’s ability to deliver essential medical supplies, even at short notice.” As well as meeting


pharmaceutical GMP and GDP regulations, Agility is licenced by the nuclear regulatory authorities and uses its own fleet of specialist temperature-controlled vehicles for deliveries to hospitals and labs, as well as its network of specialist global partners. Of course, Agility is also


involved in all the other facets of the pharma and biotech industry in Ireland and recently upgraded its Dublin warehouse to full pharma certification. As a major global forwarder,


Agility is involved in many other markets, including the burgeoning e-commerce segment. One service it offers is Shipa Freight, an instant freight quote platform that enables smaller firms and online entrepreneurs to manage


and track their shipments online. It also has numerous initiatives


to help companies minimise their carbon footprint such as load allocation services to eliminate empty running. Agility operates in 100


countries and its particular strength is in emerging markets – a major destination for Irish pharma exports, Vargas adds. “The developing world is a very big market for us,” he says. “We’ve invested heavily in Africa, where we are building a network of logistics parks that will provide the international-standard warehousing necessary to create a modern, efficient pharma and life sciences supply chain.” Meanwhile,


Ireland is still a


growing market and continues to attract pharma and biotech firms in particular. At the time of writing, in mid-February, Agility was helping customers navigate the challenges posed by Coronavirus by working to help them find shipping alternatives.


person, we don’t ‘plug and play’ someone from a competitor. They will be experts in their specific modes of transport and they’ll also be hugely tuned into their industries too.” Tobin adds: “Our customers


expect us to ‘see around corners’, to anticipate the effects of events like Brexit, Trump’s trade war or the current corona virus situation in China and try and get ahead of situations like that as far as possible.” It’s important for people


to update and refresh their knowledge and qualifications such as the GXP pharma supply chain standard. Another major difference


between KN and its competition is how it engages


with and retains its talent, which is a massive issue for the logistics industry in Ireland. The industry collectively has struggled to attract and keep people in recent years because of the intense competition from IT firms or the biotech firms. However, says Mccabe, KN


has met that problem head on and in fact has one of the leading rankings in the Great Place to Work Institute’s annual survey of the country’s best workplaces. “We’ve attracted many people into this company, and indeed attracted many back in after they had gone to work elsewhere, often for our customers,” says McCabe. He attributes KN’s success


in attracting talent, in a sector in which it can be almost impossible to recruit, to factors including investment in


enables the free movement of goods across the island or Ireland, it does not include transport and some sort of deal would need to be signed to avoid the need for licensing and to allow cabotage operations to continue. Rules on transit would also need to be agreed; many Northern Ireland producers send goods out to the EU via Dublin port, for instance.


initiatives such as the Logistics Associate Apprenticeship, which started out as a KN programme but which has since been adopted by the Irish government. There are currently 100 apprentices in the scheme, of which KN accounts for 19, the largest proportion of any company. He adds: “The scheme is


open to anyone over the age of 18 looking for a career in the industry and we now have a pipeline of people coming in.” Slowly, the perception that


logistics is an ‘unsexy’ industry is changing and people are beginning to see it as a viable and attractive career path, in large part due to initiatives like the Logistics Apprenticeship. Mccabe states: “People are


important in this industry; in fact, in an asset-light industry like ours, you could argue that it really is all we have.”


DSV Road shows its sensitive side


With practically the whole of Europe covered, there are few services in terms of geography that DSV Road cannot already offer its customers but it is stepping up its offerings for specific commodities. New managing director in


Ireland Jesper Thygesen is hoping to develop a specific service for temperature- controlled pharmaceuticals. Physically, the capacity already exists – DSV offers extensive reefer trailer capacity for the food and agri sector. However, pharma firms don’t let just anyone load their products into trailers – they insist that staff are properly trained and that the operation is fully compliant with the industry’s Good Distribution Practice (GDP) rules. DSV’s Air and Road arms are


already GDP-certified and the plan is to replicate that in DSV Road. “It’s a massive market,” says


Thygesen. “And our service will be available to any European country.” The size of DSV Road – it is


the biggest operator in its sector in the Irish market – gives it the resources to set up in this specialised area. Smaller hauliers do not have the resources to enable them to do so. There is a big potential market


on offer. Biotech and pharma is arguably now the leading Irish industry and there are plenty of products to be moved – not just human medicines but veterinary ones too. DSV then has plenty of


business to go for. In the Irish market, though, it has been an


up and down time in the past 12 months, as it has for every other operator grappling with the uncertainties of Brexit. “Last year, we saw huge fluctuations,” says Thygesen. “This year, I think we could see a similar surge in about October or November ahead of Brexit.” In March 2019, there was a ‘huge panic’ ahead of the then expected Brexit deadline, although things were more muted in November. He hopes that the actual Brexit


deadline in 2020 will be a much quieter affair; people should at


least know exactly what to


expect in terms of customs requirements. “Brexit has been predicted three times now,” Thygesen points out. Perhaps Brexit fatigue has set in? Technology help


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