Yusen Logistics Benelux has announced that it will open a new pharma and healthcare warehouse in Gembloux (Wallonia) to further position Benelux as a strategic healthcare logistics hub for the European region. The automated healthcare dedicated and GDP certified warehouse will be opened by the end of Q1 2024.
Due to increased demand, Yusen Logistics Benelux added over 40,000 sq m to its smart pharma operation in recent years by opening new warehouses in Roosendaal, Antwerp and Herentals. Now Yusen Logistics continues to invest in this new location in Gembloux.
Gembloux is centrally located and unique for the area. The 18-meter-high warehouse will consist of two separate buildings. One building from 1,500 sq m will be ambient and fitted for the storage of dangerous goods. The other building will be around 39,000 sq m storage space with variable temperatures. The building will be equipped with a range of automated solutions like AMR’s (Autonomous Mobile Robots) and AGV’s (Automated Guided Vehicles) as material handling equipment for order preparation. This new warehouse will meet the highest sustainability standards. Photovoltaic solar panels as well as charging points for electric cars and bicycles will be installed at the facility. The building will be BREEAM certified and FM Global compliant. MG Real Estate is responsible for the development of the site and will lease it to Yusen Logistics.
GSK has the ambition to consolidate and centralize their Belgian incoming material and vaccine warehouse activities on this new site (GSK Logistics Hub). The remaining space at the Gembloux location will be accessible for other healthcare customers.
Bruno Jacques, Managing Director of Yusen Logistics Benelux: “This new warehouse underlines our strategy to further develop the pharma and healthcare activities within Benelux and Europe. This warehouse will be quite unique within Europe as it will host all the different temperature storage requirements and this in large quantities combined with different types of automation, and all of this at the highest quality and HSES standards.”
Emmanuel Amory, the recently appointed Managing Director of the vaccines division for GSK in Belgium: “The construction of this large-scale new logistics center, at the cutting edge of technology and respecting the latest environmental standards, will not only allow an impressive storage space with variable temperatures depending on our vaccines, but will also be the hub for exporting millions of our vaccines around the world. Thanks to this partnership, we will be able to distribute our vaccines more quickly to people in more than 160 countries, while reducing our CO2 emissions. This large-scale project, unique in the region, once again demonstrates GSK’s intention to strengthen the biopharmaceutical ecosystem in Belgium, and at the same time consolidates Wallonia’s place at the top of logistics.”
The Benelux is a strategic hotspot for Yusen Logistics at European level – for import and export flows, worldwide air and sea freight in combination with extensive road network connections for transit to destinations throughout Europe. The Yusen Logistics Benelux warehouses are also hubs on the Yusen Logistics pharmaceutical superhighway, a Control Tower-driven European network, in which more than two million pallets of pharmaceutical products are transported every year. The expansion with this new location will further strengthen the healthcare network within Yusen Logistics Europe and the other regions around the world.
Source: Yusen Logistics
