Leading medical technology company Medtronic will switch more European express business from UPSand TNT to DHL next year following a successful partnership for the German market.
The group, with $16 billion in annual revenues, makes about 6,500 deliveries of devices, kitsand samples a day in Europe, including some 200 international shipments, Bas Lilipaly, Medtronic’sEMEA transportation manager, told journalists in a customer case presentation at DHL’s Leipzig airhub last week.
Until last year, Medtronic used UPS and TNT for all its European distribution from itscentralised European warehouse at Heerlen in the Netherlands, he explained.
In 2011, however, the company opened a second warehouse close to Leipzig and started using DHLExpress for distribution in Germany, its largest market in Europe, and parts of Central Europe,while Heerlen remained responsible for the rest of Western Europe.
“With DHL we found reliability, competitiveness, capability and agility,” Lilipaly declared. “The way DHL was able to work with us was key.”
As a result, from early 2013 onwards, Medtronic will also start to distribute its internationalshipments for the Nordics and Austria with DHL via Leipzig, he disclosed.
Ralph Wondrak, COO for DHL Express Germany & Alps, said DHL was able to offer late eveningpick-ups and guaranteed next-day deliveries to 95% of Germany by 08:00 and to the remaining ruralareas by 09:00, and was providing Medtronic with a 99.1% service performance.
About 10-15% of the company’s 1,500 daily shipments of surgical devices, kits and productsamples from the Leipzig distribution centre had to be delivered before 08:00, often directly to ahospital operating theatre, he pointed out.
Michael Terhoeven, vice president business development & strategy at DHL Customer Solutions& Innovation, who presented the group’s strategy for the fast-growing life sciences andhealthcare sector, highlighted DHL’s expansion of facilities in emerging markets, employment of 60full-time pharmacists to ensure full regulatory compliance and expansion of its cold chainservices.
