Connecting forwarding, customs and warehousing for Perrigo
Managing international pharmaceutical supply chains requires coordination, flexibility and a strong understanding of customs processes. For Perrigo, a self-care and over-the-counter pharmaceutical company, smooth import flows into Europe are essential to keeping its supply chain moving.
To support its international operations, Perrigo works with H.Essers for an integrated combination of air and sea freight, customs services and warehousing. By bringing these activities together with one logistics partner, Perrigo aims to streamline its supply chain, minimise handovers and respond efficiently when new challenges arise.
One partner across the supply chain
Perrigo manages inbound deliveries by road, air and sea from suppliers into its warehouses across Europe. For international flows from countries such as China and India, customs clearance is a particularly important part of the process.
“Getting customs clearance running smoothly and avoiding delays upon entry into the EU is one of our key challenges,” Susan Durrant, Logistics Manager at Perrigo.
This need for smooth coordination was one of the reasons Perrigo chose to work with H.Essers. The ability to combine multiple services within one organisation was an important factor.
“We believed H.Essers could provide the end-to-end services we require. Our company values also aligned, especially around collaboration and working as partners rather than having a traditional customer-supplier relationship.”
Bringing forwarding, customs and warehousing together helps reduce the number of handovers throughout the logistics process. With the different activities coordinated by H.Essers, communication remains within one integrated setup and potential issues can be addressed more efficiently.
“Having everything managed by H.Essers helps streamline the service and prevent delays that can occur when multiple parties and handovers are involved.”
Finding practical solutions to customs challenges
The value of this integrated approach becomes particularly clear when shipments require additional customs procedures.
For one shipment, Perrigo had a container carrying goods for different countries, including goods that needed to be exported onwards to Switzerland. Rather than handling the necessary procedures before the container could continue to the warehouse, H.Essers developed an alternative approach.
The container could be transported directly to the warehouse, where the necessary transit procedures and inspections could take place if required. This helped prevent additional delays in the process while also avoiding potential demurrage costs.
It is an example of how forwarding, customs expertise and warehousing can work together to provide a practical solution when a standard logistics process does not fit the situation.
Collaboration as the basis for flexibility
Beyond operational integration, Perrigo particularly values the communication between both teams.
“We always communicate well, look at issues together and find solutions that can benefit both parties.”
That collaborative approach is increasingly important in an international environment where supply chains need to adapt quickly to new requirements. For Perrigo, a logistics partner therefore needs more than established processes. Being able to respond efficiently and develop new solutions together is equally important.
“In the ever-changing global environment, it is important that our partners can respond to new requests efficiently. Where there is no current solution in place, we need to be able to work together and make it happen. Nothing is impossible.”
For H.Essers, this collaboration reflects the value of combining logistics expertise under one roof: connecting forwarding, customs and warehousing capabilities to help customers manage complex international flows with fewer handovers and greater flexibility.