The Hindu Business Line : KLM Cargo unveils end-to-end solution for pharma exporters

The joint venture's base in the Netherlands provides extra benefits due to the flexible tax regime and its attractive logistical and distribution networks.

(From Left) Mr Martijn Kerstens, Managing Director, OPG Group of the Netherlands, Ms H. Huppes, Managing Director, Regilabs (part of OPG Group), and Mr Sanjay Tiwari, Director, Pharma and Fashion, KLM Cargo, after the news conference in Hyderabad on Thursday. — A.Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , Aug. 26

KLM Cargo, the international airline carrier, and the OPG group of the Netherlands, a pharma products distributor, have joined hands to provide an end-to-end, logistics support solution to the Indian pharma industry eyeing the growing markets in the European Union (EU) countries.

Mr Sanjay Tiwari, Director of Pharma & Fashion at KLM Cargo in the Netherlands, said that the joint venture would be a `one-stop' facility for pharma products from India.

From the initial order booking to re-packaging, testing, inventory, and distribution, all the necessary services would be provided to the customer.

The top executives of the two companies have initiated discussions with leading Indian pharma companies in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

KLM Cargo already provides logistics support to some of the big names in the pharma industry in the country, he told newspersons.

Mr Martijn Kerstens, Managing Director of the OPG group, said: "By managing the entire supply chain, from registration and initial shipment till products reach end-customers, the joint venture will let companies focus on their core business and minimise costs."

The joint venture's base in the Netherlands provides extra benefits due to the flexible tax regime and its attractive logistical and distribution networks, with two of Europe's key cargo airports - Amsterdam's Schiphol and Rotterdam container terminal - as well as many trucking companies reaching European countries, he said.

OPG group's two subsidiaries - RegiLabs and Red Swan pharma logistics - will provide all the help required to tackle testing and regulatory requirements of the EU countries to smoothen the process of reaching the Indian pharma products to the distributor chain.

"India is the first country in the whole of Asia where KLM and OPG group have decided to expand this solution."

India is one of the most diverse markets and hence the focus, said Mr Tiwari.

To ensure quality controls in transportation, the duo is talking with Pharmexcil, the pharma export promotion council, to work out details.

Pharma products need to be stored at certain temperatures and transported in cool trucks, which KLM Cargo and OPG are geared to provide, he added.

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