Interview with Patrick Verkuijlen, Managing Director of Movianto Benelux
Patrick Verkuijlen has built a remarkable career in logistics, particularly within the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, but also in high-value and med-tech supply chains. He has contributed to Movianto’s status as a leader in healthcare logistics and supply chain solutions, especially in developing Movianto’s relationship with international clients from outside Europe. In this interview, Patrick discusses his career path, the unique services offered by Movianto Benelux, and the latest trends in the healthcare logistics industry.
Q: Can you share your career journey and your experiences in logistics?
Patrick Verkuijlen: My career began right after completing my education, joining FedEx Supply Chain where I focused on high-tech and medical devices. From the start, I was involved in international logistics, handling mostly urgent or high-value products. I spent time in the solutions team, developing specific supply chain solutions for customers, and worked as an operational site manager. Over the years, I gained experience overseeing various aspects of the business, including finance, quality, transport, and operations. After 18.5 years at FedEx, I joined Movianto in 2013 as the Business Development Director, based in the Netherlands with a European role.
Q: What motivated you to pursue a career in pharma/healthcare logistics?
Patrick Verkuijlen: I find it both challenging and fulfilling. Movianto is dedicated to healthcare, focusing on pharma, biotech, medical devices, and diagnostics, and in the Benelux region, we particularly focus on urgent and high-value products that require the high level of quality we provide. The opportunity to work with such critical and valuable products was a significant motivator for me, and the fact that we have such a significant impact on the health of the patients at the end of the chain remains an immensely rewarding aspect of my daily work.
Q: How has your journey with Movianto been so far?
Patrick Verkuijlen: My objective when I started at Movianto was to develop a more international service out of the Netherlands, leveraging the country’s strengths in import-export to benefit from growth in the Benelux region. Together with my team, we successfully grew our international client base, transforming the business in the Netherlands from a primarily domestic one to an international one. I then had the opportunity to move to commercial management due to my existing and fruitful relationships with the clients, and after the acquisition by Walden, I was asked to become the Managing Director of the Netherlands and Belgium. This role has allowed me to transfer some of the best practices from the model I knew in the Netherlands into Belgium, where we already had a close collaboration, and it’s only become closer.
Q: Is there anything you wish you had known earlier in your career?
Patrick Verkuijlen: For one thing, if I had known how fulfilling it was, I would have moved much earlier into working in healthcare.
From a business point of view, I would have pushed to integrate a one-stop-shop business model much earlier if I had known how effective it is. Everyone benefits: our own people in our organisation benefit from more opportunities, more job mobility, and our clients benefit from fewer points of contact, more visibility over their supply chain, more peace of mind. It’s truly a win-win scenario.
Q: What unique services does Movianto Benelux offer that set you apart from competitors?
Patrick Verkuijlen: In Movianto Benelux, we are one of the few logistics experts who offer a complete order-to-cash service with ISAE accreditation, including e-invoicing and e-ordering internationally. These services are supported by robust visibility tools for clients like Walden View, allowing them complete control over their supply chains and full autonomy over their data.
And of course, everything is 100% healthcare-dedicated and temperature-controlled; we manage all temperature zones from –80°C to +15 to +25°C and everything in between.
Q: Can you provide examples of how these services have benefited your clients?
Patrick Verkuijlen: A great example: e-invoicing and e-ordering are soon becoming mandatory for international order-to-cash due to upcoming EU regulations. We are ahead of this curve already, implemented in many countries and offering ISAE accreditation (SOC compliance), giving both European and US pharmaceutical companies confidence to outsource to us knowing their operations are compliant, secure, and regularly audited. This alignment with upcoming regulations provides our clients with peace of mind and provides us with a client base that trusts us and regularly comes to us for advice. Another win-win.
Q: How do you collaborate with other Movianto country organisations?
Patrick Verkuijlen: We have a very close collaboration with the DACH region, where many of our biotech clients operate separately in Switzerland. We have a very similar relationship with Spain. We also collaborate with Eurotranspharma for direct deliveries into France and Germany. And of course, on a European level, we frequently share information about multi-country clients and work with the central European commercial team.
Q: What is your perspective on the healthcare industry in the Benelux, and the impact on our business as a logistician?
Patrick Verkuijlen: The Netherlands has a lot of import-export activity in healthcare, with the local pharmaceutical market revolving primarily around wholesalers. The size of the customer base for the domestic market is relatively small compared to operations in for example Belgium, which is about five times bigger. Therefore, growing our business in the Netherlands forces us to grow internationally. Meanwhile, in Belgium, domestic services are a bigger slice of the market and there is more need for direct transport to hospitals and pharmacies, but domestic competition is also fiercer. We are currently developing Belgium to focus also internationally, while still fulfilling all the local delivery needs of our domestic clients.
Q: What are the current trends in the pharma logistics industry in the Benelux?
Patrick Verkuijlen: There are many trends we are monitoring; for example, EU regulations about e-invoicing and e-ordering are becoming more urgent, involving more countries. There are more opportunities for biotech and personalised medicine, with financing for biotech coming back. This also results in increased research & development in the area of medicine aiming at weight loss, and there is also a lot of development in DNA genetic research, with more upcoming companies.
Overall, the Benelux is a centrally located region in Europe with many regulatory advantages for biotech and startup pharma companies, and as the market shifts more towards digital transformation, we are working to provide clients of all sizes with the logistics solutions they require.