Pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca has awarded NYK Logistics a £6m two and a half year contract for the centralised planning and primary distribution of pharmaceuticals from its manufacturing sites throughout Europe into its European distribution network.
Using NYK’s pan-European network of road transport partners, the operation involves the temperature-controlled distribution of almost 50,000 pallets of product per annum from 10 manufacturing plants across the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden to 30 delivery points throughout Europe.
James Shaw of AstraZeneca said: “At both a cultural and operational level, NYK recognised that the new approach would represent a major challenge for many of our manufacturing plants and established a dedicated implementation team to ensure a seamless transition to the new system, including a dedicated relationship manager to ensure maximum confidence and co-operation from every site.”
Prior to NYK’s appointment, AstraZeneca’s manufacturing plants operated independently and were responsible for their own transport.
NYK is providing centralised management and planning of the entire pan-European road transport operation, maximising co-loading and round trip opportunities and delivering substantial cost savings and environmental benefits.
