(Aalst/Belgium) “We are receiving more and more requests for storage facilities for chilled and frozen pharmaceutical products,” says Patrick Verkuijlen, Managing Director of pharmaceutical logistics specialist Movianto for Belgium and the Netherlands. “The trend has been unbroken for many years, which is why we are continuously expanding our capacities in this area.”
The new walk-in freezer
The most recent example is a new walk-in freezer, installed this month. It offers space for storing goods on 350 pallets at -20 Degrees Celsius. The deep-freeze hall with its 160 square metres of floor space and a height of around 10.5 metres. “And because a large part of the space has already been booked by customers over the summer, we are already planning further freezer capacity in Aalst,” Verkuijlen adds.
The refrigerated area has been remodelled and expanded
In addition to the deep freeze area, the refrigerated area has also been remodelled and expanded. “We now have a total of 1,000 square metres of storage space available for temperature-controlled goods in the 2 to 8 Degree Celsius range.” The warehouse is equipped with six levels of shelving where pallets can be stored. This means it now has 1,750 pallet spaces, where previously it was 1,300.
[Picture] : Ready racking in Movianto Belgium’s Aalst facility
Movianto Belgium
Movianto has been active in Belgium for more than 15 years. In 2008, the French company CSP, which is now part of Movianto, started with a site in Houdeng-Goegnies which is still operated by Movianto. In 2009 a second site in Drongen was added following the takeover of Belgian company Dirk Raes. Then in Aalst a completely new logistics centre was bult in 2016, which has now expanded.
“Aalst and Houdeng-Goegnies are particularly important for international logistics chains,” explains Verkuijlen. “Due to the central location being close to ports and airports, and a favourable economic environment in Belgium, customers use us as a gateway to Europe.” From Aalst, Movianto offers a pan-European centralised order-to-cash service (S.O.C. compliant), including customs clearance in Belgium. The two sites in Belgium are offering storing capacity of more than 28.000m² in total, are employing 150 people and processing more than 1.25 million order lines per year. Besides warehouse space in the ambient (15 to 25 Degrees Celsius), chill (2 to 8 Degrees Celsius) and frozen range (minus 20 Degrees Celsius), Movianto also offers more than 40 ultra-low freezers (minus 80 Degrees Celsius) in Aalst which are used for storage of vaccines.