Parcel giant DPD acquires temperature-controlled logistics firms

French post office-owned parcel delivery giant DPD has announced the “strategic” acquisition of BK Pharma Logistics and BK Sneltransport – two Dutch firms specialised in temperature-controlled transport and logistics services for food and pharmaceutical products – via its subsidiary company, DPD Netherlands.

The terms and value of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Highlighting the backdrop to the purchase of the two companies, DPDgroup said: “The year 2020 was a year of extremes for parcel delivery firms. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a rush in demand for the parcel delivery industry, with nationwide lockdowns, home isolation and preventive measures generating a huge rise in parcel deliveries. The health crisis has meant that trends that had not been expected until 2024 have taken hold much earlier, such as an unprecedented rise in demand for deliveries of food, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.”

The statement underlined that the customer base of BK Pharma Logistics and BK Sneltransport is made up of major national and international companies in the healthcare, food and laboratory sectors. “This requires highly specific knowledge in the area of temperature-controlled transport. From the state-of-the-art warehouse in Boxmeer, the transport of pharmaceutical and healthcare products is organised in a safe, temperature-controlled way from a validated environment.”

It added that by pooling expertise, DPD Netherlands aims to expand its core activities by 2025.

Eric Dietz, CEO at DPD Netherlands, commented: “We are delighted to be working with BK Pharma Logistics and BK Sneltransport. We can learn much from each other, enter new markets together and thus grow our activities in temperature-controlled transport for the pharmaceutical, healthcare and food sectors. This holds with our ambitions and the growth markets that we, at DPD, have identified as having huge potential.”

BK Pharma Logistics' activities span healtcare products, clinical trials and cool chain provision while BK Sneltransport's business portfolio encompasses the refrigerated courier, hospitality, supermarket, wholesale and meat processing sectors. The company is also present in laboratory logistics, which includes COVID tests and soil samples, as well as handling dangerous goods.

Last month, Lloyd's Loading List reported that DPDgroup had launched a China-Europe ‘preighter’ service to accommodate a surge in e-commerce traffic.

Its Hong-Kong based subsidiary, Lenton Group, has signed a strategic partnership with Hainan Airways, initially for a one-year period, to operate two weekly round-trip flights between Haikou and Paris. The flights are operated by Boeing 787-900 passenger aircraft converted to carry cargo.