Snowman Logistics has inked a strategic partnership with Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy’s, to supply temperature-controlled end-to-end logistics solutions for the delivery of the two-dose Sputnik V vaccine, across India. This leading logistics service provider will shoulder the delivery task through five of its high-capacity temperature-controlled warehouses in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Consequently, Snowman will offer facilities like storage, order processing, shipper packing and secondary transportation, from these sites.
Snowman to now be the largest 3PL service provider for vaccines in India
The selected 5 locations have been strategically excogitated to ensure not just the state-wise distribution but also to heed to the whole of the regional requirements. It has also been filed that throughout, the temperature will be perpetuated between -20°C and -25°C. The company has the ability to store the vials at upto -80°C and provides real-time temperature monitoring, to ensure the correct conditions for vaccine distribution during the entire supply chain.
As per reports, Snowman Logistics also has the potential to readily store 650 million doses of vaccines at any given time, which can be increased to 1.05 billion doses, with a short notice for pan-India distribution. Further, Snowman will now be the largest 3PL service provider for vaccines in the country, offering national reach to Dr. Reddy’s Lab.
In addition to this, the company has a CapEx plan of roughly Rs 425 crore for capacity expansion, with a focus on the pharma and e-commerce sector, where the company has seen huge increases in demand since the onset of the pandemic. The demand graph has especially surged, as there is a dearth of capacities in the organised sector. Snowman already has a track record of servicing pharma clients such as Abbott, Alkem, Bharat Biotech, GlaxoSmithKline, Inventia, MSD Pharma, Novozymes, and Pfizer, amongst others.
“Vaccine delivery is the need of the hour”
Speaking on the partnership, Sunil Nair, CEO, Snowman Logistics Limited, said, “Vaccine delivery is the need of the hour. With this partnership with Dr. Reddy’s, we aim to reach maximum institutions administering vaccines through our five high-capacity temperature-controlled warehouses. We are hopeful of carrying a seamless drive from these warehouses through our fleet of refrigerated vehicles maintaining the requisite temperatures throughout the delivery cycle. We will be delivering Sputnik vaccine to nearby states and cities as well from these strategic locations.”
Ishaan Gupta, Joint Managing Director, Gateway Distriparks Limited and Director, Snowman, added, “Snowman Logistics is a key vertical of the Gateway group and we are proud to have built the largest private temperature-controlled warehouse capacity in India through which we can serve the country’s requirements at this difficult time. While we have been distributing Covid vaccines since the beginning of this year, we are excited about this partnership with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories through which we hope to provide COVID vaccines across India.”
Last year, the company curated solutions catering to small-volume locations (small towns, talukas, villages) where there were no cold storages, by using refrigerated containers, reach-in freezers and so on, for effective temperature-controlled deliveries.
