Kuehne + Nagel provides healthcare logistics services for Roche in Chile

Santiago, Chile, January 11, 2010 – Roche Chile has chosen Kuehne + Nagel to manage its national distribution centre, involving warehousing and distribution services for medical, promotional and raw material product ranges.

Kuehne + Nagel has been awarded an exclusive logistics contract to manage the warehousing and distribution activities for Roche Chile. Under the terms of the agreement, Kuehne + Nagel will handle endproducts and raw materials. The services also cover the handling of sensitive cargo such as temperature-controlled biotechnological products and psychotropic medicines.

Kuehne + Nagel will support Roche Chile in optimizing its distribution processes, improving the performance of the 2,000 sqm logistics warehouse in Macul, Santiago, and will be responsible for the distribution to hospitals, clinics and pharmacy distribution centres throughout the country.

“Taking over last-mile delivery services for Roche in Chile is proof of the trust placed in us by a globally leading healthcare company and demonstrates our strong capacity to optimize processes and add value enabling the customer to focus on its core business,” commented Ingo Goldhammer, Managing Director of Kuehne + Nagel Chile. “We are committed to further developing and investing in our integrated solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.”

René Delsin, General Manager of Roche Chile, said, “Roche is an innovative healthcare company, and this deal is part of our strategy to improve our focus on core activities locally. It will allow us to dedicate more attention to demand generation, without losing the quality of our current distribution in Chile. Working with Kuehne + Nagel, a world-class logistics service provider, we will also have the possibility to incorporate new technologies, explore synergies and further integrate our logistics and distribution processes, improving our efficiency and reducing inventories.”

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche’s personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2008, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The company has had operations in Chile for over 38 years. It employs around 250 people throughout the country. Further information can be found at www.roche.com

About Kuehne + Nagel

With approximately 55,000 employees at 900 locations in over 100 countries, the Kuehne + Nagel Group is one of the world’s leading logistics companies. Its strong market position lies in the seafreight, airfreight, contract logistics and overland businesses, with a clear focus on providing IT-based supply chain management services. In Chile, Kuehne + Nagel operates at eight locations with 71,000 sqm of warehouse space under management. The company has a workforce of 460 people. Further information can be found at www.kuehne-nagel.com