Temperature Controlled GDP services from GB to Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland continues to be our core growth market. Our new Manchester site has facilitated a WDA Licensed consolidation platform allowing us to consolidate an even greater quantity of small shipments for onward delivery. We are also seeing much bigger volumes of Generics and Specials heading East bound as Northern Ireland exploits its unique trading situation of being both in the UK Customs Territory and The Single Market. Post Brexit saw some manufacturers change their Supply Chain processes in terms of supplying Northern Ireland Licensed Medicines directly from Europe into The Republic Of Ireland, in effect bypassing the UK Mainland. These strategies have now had to be repealed as the new GB / NI only labelling came into effect in 2025. Our scalable, wholly independent, shared user service model has never been more critical.

A just in time logistics service that can not only offer a Next Day delivery from GB to NI, temperature controlled and GDP compliant is critical to supporting the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Infrastructure in Northern Ireland, but to be able to offer that service from Parcels to FTL’s, from Wholesale Stock replenishment to Patient Home Deliveries is truly unique.

The easements around certain “Shelf Stable Healthcare / Pharmacy products has also come to an end following the introduction of the Northern Ireland Retail Market Scheme (NIRMS). Everyday products such as Protein Drinks, Build Up Shakes and the likes of Cod Liver Oil products must now be declared to DEFRA / DAERA. To benefit from the simplified NIRMS process both the Consignor and Consignee must be registered under the scheme, but eligibility for Small Pharmacies and Non-Wholesale recipients can prove problematic and therefore detrimental to NI Patients being able to enjoy equal availability as those in GB. Through direct negotiations with Policy Makers at the highest level we have secured NIRMS Registration at our Manchester and Northern Ireland Distribution Depots allowing us to both create and close General Certificates and CHED’s for these products, facilitating seamless distribution to some of the Major Pre-Wholesalers and Wholesalers in GB that have contractual responsibilities to global Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and holders of WMA’s to service Northern Ireland.

Investment in IT continues to be at the forefront of our business planning. One key component of bespoke operating system is the super slick EDI connection with the Trader Support Service (TSS) customs framework. With no effort at all we quickly collate the required data to create a Simplified Declaration to present at the point of entering Northern Ireland without our customers so much as blinking an eye (and we don’t even charge). We are working closely with HMRC and TSS to fine tune the already postponed implementation of The Green Lane / Red Lane process and have already highlighted significant gaps that would directly impact the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare supply chain.

We continue to aim to replicate this successful model from GB to The Isle of Man. Currently the service is patchy and often, not wholly compliant. Chilled products often require costly Validated Packaging and some consignors even running costly and inefficient dedicated vans. Our aim in the coming months is to encourage the key Wholesaler Players to engage with us to allow us to demonstrate what consolidated support, to an independent provider such as ourselves, could facilitate in terms of making a viable, Temp Controlled, Compliant service infrastructure to the IOM.

No one individual Consignor has the volume to make this happen but by bringing all that small volume together, we believe we can!