UPS expands global healthcare distribution network in five North American markets

Transportation and logistics bellwether UPS continues to make inroads in its healthcare logistics portfolio, with this week’s announcement that it is expanding its global healthcare distribution network in five North American markets, including: Burlington, Ontario, Louisville, Ky., Mira Loma, Calif., Atlanta, Ga., and Reno, Nev.

Company officials said that these expansions add roughly 800,000 square-feet to its global network of 37 dedicated healthcare facilities, adding that UPS has almost six million square feet of distribution space.

“This expansion is a part of our multi-year global healthcare growth strategy and ongoing commitment to serve the distinctive needs of our healthcare clients for increased speed, flexibility and efficiency,” said Bill Hook, vice president, global strategy, UPS Healthcare Logistics, in an interview. “Many of these locations were selected in order to meet those growing and changing needs of our healthcare customers or for future needs that we anticipate in the industry.”

This North American expansion follows an October 2012 rollout of UPS’s global healthcare distribution facility in the Asia Pacific region, when it opened three new “state of the art facilities” in Hangzhou, China, Shanghai, China, and Sydney, Australia.

Among the trends contributing to UPS’s ongoing global expansion cited by the company are increasing globalization, complex regulatory oversight, heightened focus on outcomes, and a growing need for specialized healthcare services like temperature-sensitive solutions. And it added that these expansions announced this week were spurred by customer growth and UPS’s global healthcare strategy.

With this expansion, Hook said UPS customers can leverage industry-leading healthcare-compliant space and even access new markets through the company’s global footprint.

“These expansions are part of our larger integrated global network of 37 healthcare facilities which grant our customers direct access into the markets in which they are located,” he explained. “Our facilities also help UPS customers reduce investment and thus reduce their costs. Our facilities are multi-share and multi-use, which means the space and all the requirements that go with it are already there, available for our customers as their business grows and making it easier for them to expand their distribution space.”

The healthcare industry, noted Hook, is a top priority segment for UPS, and he said the company is “continually investing in expanding our network ahead of customer demands.”  UPS is currently planning additional facility expansions over the next 12-to-18 months in the Latin America, Europe and Asia regions, but Hook said he could share any other specifics on locations at this point.

UPS said its facilities meet all applicable government accreditations, licenses and maintain geographic-specific regulatory requirements, such as those of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Health Canada, among hundreds of others. And its healthcare facilities offer distribution space with temperature and humidity-controlled environments which help keep products in optimal conditions during storage, noting that each of the expanded facilities is designed to serve the warehousing and distribution needs of pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.