Baxter and Tri-Vizor launch innovative platform for transport collaboration

Global healthcare company Baxter announced today that it has deployed an integrated platform for consolidation of European transport flows, in order to generate savings in cost and carbon emissions of its European transports. The platform has been developed and will be operated by Tri-Vizor, the world’s first cross supply chain orchestrator and leading innovator in sustainable transport. The success of the collaborative platform will be highly dependent on the willingness of other shippers to “carpool” their cargo with Baxter’s. The incentive to do so, is substantial: all savings in transport costs and CO₂ will be shared across the partners. Baxter is prepared to gradually open up a large part of its European transport network for this type of innovative collaboration.

Baxter, a multinational healthcare company with a European Distribution Center in Lessines, has a long track record as pioneer in logistics horizontal collaboration. With Tri-Vizor as neutral orchestrator they have succeeded to set up multiple successful transport consolidations. In 2011, Baxter was the driver of the world’s first industrial-scale horizontal collaboration project with pharmaceutical company UCB. This transport collaboration on six Eastern European destination was orchestrated by Tri-Vizor, creating double digit gains in cost and carbon footprint. This project was awarded with the European Supply Chain Distinction Award for Innovation and received global exposure as a breakthrough showcase of logistics horizontal collaboration.

Since then, with support from Tri-Vizor, Baxter has implemented several successful horizontal collaboration projects with a number of other companies, such as Donaldson (co-loading of containers to Ireland), Colruyt, Eternit and Ontex (intermodal closed loop between Belgium and Spain – winner of the 2013 Best Flemish Shortsea Shipping Project Award) and others. Some of these cases are also being supported and published by the EU-funded “CO³” (Collaborative Concepts for Co-modality) consortium as examples of innovative and sustainable logistics.

For Baxter, horizontal transport collaboration has proven to generate gains in transport efficiency (cost), effectiveness (service level) and sustainability (carbon footprint). As such, the healthcare company believes that the time is now right to expand horizontal collaboration.

The role of the neutral orchestrator Tri-Vizor is important as it guarantees a trustful and anti-trust compliant environment for all companies involved. Moreover the neutral orchestrator is responsible for a fair sharing of the consolidation gains among all collaboration partners. Alex Van Breedam, CEO of Tri-Vizor emphasizes: “We will deploy our collaborative platform and our Cross Supply Chain Cockpit®, a unique collaborative Transport Management System, to orchestrate the Baxter transport lanes. Tri-Vizor’s Cross Supply Chain Database®, a unique database containing the European transport flows of more than 100 companies, will be used to search for collaboration opportunities with other networks. We believe horizontal collaboration is the future, because it is the only way to achieve simultaneous improvements in cost, service level and sustainability.”

Shippers who are interested to reduce their European transport spend and carbon footprint by sharing transport capacity, are encouraged to get in touch with the neutral orchestrator Tri-Vizor. Interested shippers will get a chance to enjoy the gains of collaborative logistics in a safe and trustful environment.

About TRI-VIZOR (www.trivizor.com)

Tri-Vizor was established in 2008 as a spin-off company from the University of Antwerp. By creating “The World’s First Cross Supply Chain Orchestrator®” the company founders wanted to make the transport and logistics sector more profitable and sustainable with innovative solutions for network orchestra­tion and horizontal collaboration. In November 2012, Tri-Vizor won the “Belgian spin-off company of the year 2012” award, in recognition of its blue ocean vision of “carpooling for cargo”.

About Baxter (www.baxter.com)

Baxter International Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures and markets products that save and sustain the lives of people with hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma, and other chronic and acute medical conditions. As a global, diversified healthcare company, Baxter applies a unique combination of expertise in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to create products that advance patient care worldwide. In 2010, Baxter reported a turnover of USD 12.8 billion and employed 49 700 people worldwide. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: BAX) and included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Questions and further information

For any further questions or information, please contact:

TRI-VIZOR NV – Alex Van Breedam – Chief Executive Officer – T +32 3 292 62 10 – M +32 475 73 68 11 – alex.vanbreedam@trivizor.com

BAXTER WORLD TRADE SA – Tina Vandenbosch – Communications Manager – T +32 2 386 80 73 – M +32 476 96 04 97 – tina_vandenbosch@baxter.com