Opting for a shared experience
A good example of shared-user centres in the UK is the one located in Cherwell, near Banbury, serving both the pharmaceutical and personal care industries.
A good example of shared-user centres in the UK is the one located in Cherwell, near Banbury, serving both the pharmaceutical and personal care industries.
This centre was developed by Exel in partnership with Janssen-Cilag and Roche Products, and comprises a 330,000ft2 campus including positive-air clean rooms for product rework, a schedules two-five controlled drug store and stringent site security. It is accredited with a complement of MHRA Licences, is IS0:9002 and is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In addition to the traditional storage and distribution, the Cherwell centre also provides a range of value-added services, including repackaging, order processing and sales ledger management as well as returns processing and statistical analysis and reporting.
Exel's second centre, at Bawtry, is one of Europe's foremost multi-user sites. Clients including Roche Products, Reckitt Benckiser, Accantia Health & Beauty and Carter Products are accommodated in an 850,000ft2 state-of-the-art centre. 'Our focus at Bawtry is to help manufacturers meet retailers' requirements for minimal stockholding, comprehensive stock availability, complete stock visibility and consolidated deliveries,' explains Anthony Mitchell, senior vice president, development at Exel. The company recently invested £20m in Bawtry, a scale of investment which is feasible because there is a critical mass of clients distributing to much the same wholesalers and retailers across the UK.
As a customer at both centres for the past five years, Roche is an enthusiastic advocate of the multi-user approach. 'The logistics challenges facing our industry have grown markedly and the shared user approach has continuously demonstrated its ability to drive ongoing benefits into, and additional costs out of, our supply chain,' says Richard Calder, finance controller of Roche Consumer Products. 'In this model, we retain ownership of our products within the supply chain and maintain visibility of sales so we can better control costs and service.'
All Roche's inbound prescription drugs from Europe for UK and Irish markets are delivered to Cherwell for storage in both ambient and temperature controlled environments. The logistics operation includes stock management, receipt of customer orders, picking and packing and distribution across the UK. It has also proved important to Roche to ensure that the time-critical and hazardous elements of its supply chain are transported in a way that integrates seamlessly with the rest of its logistics operation to ensure secure, rapid and fully documented deliveries.