Wallonia’s biologistics ecosystem seduces China
In the coming months, Shengsheng Supply Chain Management, based in Shanghai, will set up a subsidiary in Liège, where it envisages creating around 20 jobs.
The company, which employs more than 700 people, is the leader in a niche market in China: logistics for clinical studies in biotech.
Pharmaceutical companies require specialised logistics in order to properly conduct trials, as samples need to be stored at very precise temperatures.
Shengsheng Supply Chain Management was set up in 2008, during the Olympic Games in Beijing, to transport the samples taken from athletes to the laboratories during anti-doping checks, under perfect conditions.
Today, the company accounts for 70% of the Chinese market and is more or less doubling in size every year. It has become the leading player for international biotech companies intending to carry out clinical trials in China.
Franck Toussaint, Logistics and Biologistics Expert (Wallonia Export-Investment Agency).
"Shengsheng Supply Chain Management was hesitating between France, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands to set up its first European headquarters. In the end, Liège was selected because the company's management could see during their visits that Wallonia had a much higher density of biotech firms than they realised".
Liege will be Shengsheng Supply Chain Management's first basis for expansion outside China, from where it will target the European market and manage the logistics of European pharmaceutical companies planning to conduct clinical trials in China, and vice versa.
The presence of various companies specialising in cell therapy was a major factor, as was the presence of many Chinese logistics companies at Liège airport. In effect, Bierset has built a name for itself in China, especially with the recent investments of Cainiao and Alibaba. Franck Toussaint confirms this: "I was involved in presentations over there in which Liège was put on the same footing as Paris and London on maps."
The arrival of this new player in Wallonia will make it possible to attract biotech companies doing business with China, while strengthening the (bio)pharmaceutical logistics sector, a major job creator in Wallonia.
