SME forwarders told: pharma growth rewards specialists, not price-cutters

Forwarders eyeing pharmaceutical logistics should abandon any ambition of competing head-on with multinational rivals and instead build defensible specialist niches, according to Pharma.Aero secretary general Frank van Gelder.

His message cuts against a common temptation in the trade: the assumption that rising demand for complex, high-value therapies automatically translates into richer logistics margins. It does not, van Gelder argues — unless the operator brings something a generalist cannot.

The demand side is real. Clinical trials, time-critical healthcare shipments and a wave of advanced therapies are generating openings across the market. But van Gelder, speaking to The Loadstar, framed those openings as conditional rather than guaranteed.

"SME forwarders should become indispensable specialists," he said. "The opportunities are in clinical trials, time-critical healthcare, advanced therapies, specialised regional corridors and high-touch services around research centres and hospitals."

Where can smaller forwarders actually compete?

Van Gelder's answer is granular. An SME can combine local knowledge, quick decision-making and trusted international partners — assets that large networks struggle to replicate at the same speed. He also flagged emerging links with Chinese and Indian innovation ecosystems as a corridor of future opportunity.

That possibility carries a caveat, and he did not leave it implicit: operators must build real expertise rather than simply market a new lane. A lane on a brochure is not a capability.

What does compliance actually prove?

Van Gelder warned forwarders off entering the pharma market purely on the prospect of attractive margins. The entry price is steep: GDP compliance, qualified personnel, validated procedures and temperature-control competence form the foundation of any credible operation.

Even that foundation, he noted, is not proof of competence. Certification alone does not demonstrate understanding of the requirements of different pharmaceutical products. Conventional medicines, clinical trial shipments and personalised therapies present fundamentally divergent challenges — a point often glossed over by entrants who treat pharma as a single vertical.

"Agility without discipline is not resilience, it is risk," van Gelder said. "The winning combination is systems, specialist knowledge, human adaptability, and trusted partnerships. Collaboration is essential because no one company controls the full patient-critical chain."

Orchestration over ownership

His strategic framing is blunt about scale. "The future is not necessarily about who owns the biggest network, it is about who can orchestrate the most reliable one," he said. "Do not compete on price alone. Compete on expertise, reliability, flexibility, and trust."

That orchestration argument extends to disruption. Van Gelder contended that experienced, empowered teams can sometimes adapt faster than larger organisations encumbered by slower governance structures — giving SMEs a credible route to differentiation when plans break down.

Workforce resilience, in his definition, means giving employees the confidence and authority to raise concerns and act when contingency plans no longer work.

"Resilience is not created by a contingency plan. It is created by people who can act when that plan no longer works," he said.

The commercial read for shippers and forwarders

For shippers moving clinical trial material or personalised therapies, the implication is a thinner pool of genuinely qualified SME partners — and a reason to audit claimed expertise rather than accept certification at face value.

For SME forwarders, the calculus is equally clear. The pharma opportunity exists, but it demands upfront investment in compliance, training and temperature-control capability before the first high-margin consignment moves. Entrants who skip that step, van Gelder's argument suggests, will find agility without discipline priced as risk by exactly the customers they hoped to win.

The trajectory he points toward is consolidation of trust around orchestrators: as advanced therapies multiply and corridor links with Chinese and Indian innovation hubs deepen, reliable specialist networks — not the largest ones — look set to capture the growth.