Packaging is highly regulated in the pharmaceutical industry, but some variations depend upon the product’s nature and utility.
Packaging is an inherent part of pharmaceutical products. There is a specific and detailed guideline for the storage and preservation of every pharmaceutical product. Moreover, packaging material should not interact physically and chemically with the content of the product.
Packaging is an art and science which involves preparing the essentials for transport and storage. With the increasing demand for products in almost all the leading industries globally, the need to protect and promote these vendibles has become ever-increasing, especially those related to the pharmaceutical industry. This primary role of product packaging rests on the shoulders of reliable packagers. The packaging is designed to uphold the highest standards and protect the integrity of the product.
DaklaPack Group is one such company that provides sustainable packaging and shipping solutions for medical products, specimens, and medical kitting services. The company ensures top-notch quality, and it has an all-inhouse packaging and shipping facility that caters to and fulfils the demands of its clients in the pharmaceutical niche.
Under the astounding leadership of Dave Klaassen, CEO, the company also provides flexible plastic packaging, and envelopes, and caters to many industries worldwide. The company has set manufacturing units worldwide and is fast growing at a rate of 30% per year.
Experience Close to Half a century
The DaklaPack Group is a family-owned business, and the origin of the business lies in the packaging industry. The business was started in 1975 under the name ‘Minigrip Netherlands,’ its main activity was the production and sales of the well-known zip-lock bags.
By now, the business under the name ‘DaklaPack,’ has several core activities: The production of packaging, such as stand-up pouches and spouted pouches, co-packing food products, co-packing of medical products in certified cleanrooms, the assembly of (medical) collection kits which in most cases require unique barcodes to be connected to patients/participants, these kitting projects often also require order fulfillment which the company is currently offering in Europe, the US, and China.
Extraordinary Services
The customers can determine for themselves to what extent they utilize the services provided by the company. Some purchase packaging materials, others ask them to develop as software-solution for them, or they can completely outsource their lab work to the company. Often, it offers complete turn-key solutions. Especially when it comes to (medical) kitting projects, the ability to offer turn-key solutions is precious to its customers.
The company manages the operational side of their customer’s business: from designing and developing their collection kits; producing and procuring the required materials, warehousing, kit assembly, to order fulfilment, and in some cases, including the lab analysis at its European laboratory. This allows the customers to fully focus their efforts on putting their products into the market.
Since 2020, DaklaPack has a medical laboratory where it performs thousands of blood, urine, fecal and saliva analysis per day. Important to note is that its IT department can offer tailor-made solutions for its customers to allow for a more easy and safer transfer of customer and/or patient data. DaklaPack has a large team of in-house software engineers.
Ethical and Righteous Working
The DaklaPack group strongly values reliability, innovation, sustainability, a pleasant, safe, and healthy working environment with flexibility and adaptability for its employees and its business partners.
Dave says, “We believe people, particularly in Western societies, more than ever before want to have a solid grip on their health and demand to have more insights into the state of their physical and mental health.” Further, he states, “We all live a busy life, therefore ease and convenience are very important.”
People prefer not to have to travel to hospitals or clinics to collect sample specimens and strongly prefer to do this at home, whatever best suits their agenda. The DaklaPack group recognizes these needs and puts a lot of energy and effort into, for instance, making sample collection as easy, stress-free, and convenient as possible.
At the same time, it also sees the increasing pressure put on the demanding lives of the global environment and actively wants to make a difference in terms of sustainability.
With talented and motivated employees, DaklaPack wants its business partners to make a difference. While talking about the mission, Dave says, “We are the market leader in innovative packaging, kitting, and shipping materials. We offer unique and sustainable solutions for shipping, packaging, and filling.”
The DaklaPack group became successful from the start to continuously pursue the creation of added value within the company. The company has explicitly chosen to keep as much of its value chain and supply chain within itself, which allows them to adapt quickly and remain flexible no matter what.
The company also has a great grip on quality while also having a robust supply chain. It has always thought big and has a strong international outlook, focusing on tapping into foreign markets.
The company’s presence in various markets globally means that it can implement the knowledge in different countries across the international business. DaklaPack always strives for the highest standards and works with excellent people who had allowed them to conquer heights.
Eminent Use of Technology
New diagnostic techniques ensure that fewer specimens are used and deliver precise analysis. This allows for a shift towards preventive health care and early detection of illness. It works well in today’s world in which people want to be in control of their health. The DaklaPack group accommodates this by providing kitting and logistical services to allow for swift, clean, and reliable sample collection by patients at home.
With the company’s strong focus on innovation and IT, it continues to develop new and better ways to collect, ship, and process diagnostic samples.
Exceptional Changing Times
DaklaPack is often under time pressure as it is positioned more towards the end of the chain for most of its customers. Packaging and logistics are often the last stages of product development for most companies. In addition, it is often seen that companies push changes through on a prominent level without considering or realizing the impact this might have throughout the supply chain.
It solves this by ensuring it remains a flexible business, can easily and quickly adapt to changes and guarantees the project managers always have a helicopter view of the situation.
As the company has dealt with many types of customers, different projects, and assorted products, it has a vast knowledge base and lots of experience on which it can build, especially when it comes to problem-solving.
The firm is also trying to keep in close contact with its customers and advise them as much as possible; this allows the company to prevent issues before they ever arise.
Enlightening the Budding Entrepreneurs
Dave believes that it requires moderate time to gain traction in a health care space. He states, “Long selling cycles require good planning and good funding. We see a lot of start-ups that have great and viable ideas but, in the end, do not make it because their funding is inadequate to gap the years it can take to gain traction. It can be smart to partner with strategic investors who know the market; have experience in the healthcare space, and, if you are planning to market your product globally, understand the international differences.”
Envisioning the Future Map
Over the past five years, DaklaPack has proliferated, about 300% globally. It has expanded its team quickly and opened new facilities. It plans to organically grow the European business in the coming years by tapping into a new market and further expanding its operations in the US and Asia. The company aims to achieve robust growth by remaining true to its values and culture. DaklaPack also plans to hire talented and motivated employees, further investing in innovative ideas and products while also catering to their customer expectations.
Exhibiting Excellence
Through its significant contribution in the field of packaging, DaklaPack has gained recognition from its worthy clients. One such client CNAMTS, French Ministry of Health DGS, INCa, mentions its outstanding contribution, and this is what they have to say about the company:
DaklaPack designed and produced all packaging and distributed all invitation packages on behalf of the Colorectal Cancer Screening Program for the French Ministry of Health. This project began in 2015, and to date, DaklaPack Clinical Trials has produced, processed, and sent over 36 million invitation packages.
The project began with the innovation team, who worked together to design this kit for the client. Throughout the process, the designs were altered to meet regulatory requirements. These invitation packages, or shipping envelopes, incorporates a three-step pouch that holds a brochure, a stool catcher, a personalized identification form, a self-sampling tube, and a return envelope, which formulated the entire home kit.
Using a client-specific IT infrastructure, the identification form, kit ID, and tube label are linked and connected to the shipping box and order number. This entails that each tube contains the following information: kit ID, box ID, doctor, and delivery address.
Daily, an order file gets transferred to the servers. The processing begins with checking whether the file is present and in the correct format. If an error message is received or it appears that a file is missing, IT is informed to prompt the customer for the correct file. The order files are then processed automatically and are produced to include the corresponding personalized identification form. At the end of each day, production details are shared with our laboratory, transportation partners, suppliers, and customers through their respective interfaces.
A buffer is maintained based on a rolling forecast in terms of inventory. DaklaPack’s warehouse management system, Exact Global, is updated daily to keep stock quantities up to date. Furthermore, quantities are counted monthly by our quality assurance staff and matched with the stocks in the system.
Based on current stock quantities and the minimal level of stock established, the system automatically generates an order for all necessary supplies and components, which can then be approved by management.
Every manufactured item is checked at the production facility in China before being shipped outbound and when received at the assembly facility in the Netherlands. Moreover, products are sampled and checked by the supply chain to ensure that quality standards are met.
Shipments are packaged in boxes of 20 or 50 kits that are sent to the customer in either France, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Reunion, Mayotte, St Martin. Special documents have been prepared for the French overseas territories to minimize potential interruptions at customs. DaklaPack’s customer service department manages all requests for extra delivery requests with our transportation partners.
