UPS Quest for Health-Care Boost Spurs Flu Vaccine Trek - Bloomberg
When a ship’s crew in the Bering Sea contracted an intestinal illness in late 2012, United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) flew in medicine by helicopter. It sent $9 million of flu vaccines to Laos, too, keeping them at a constant temperature for five days across 9,000 miles.
Those journeys show how far UPS is venturing beyond its signature brown delivery vans in pursuit of a $50 billion global health-care supply chain market. Seeking new business as overnight shipments slump, Atlanta-based UPS and FedEx Corp. (FDX) want to take advantage of annual gains in medical cargo demand topping 20 percent.
Both companies have more than doubled their dedicated health-care storage and handling space in the past five years to take advantage of a business with potential operating margins of 15 percent or higher, dwarfing industrywide operating margins that average 5 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
When a ship’s crew in the Bering Sea contracted an intestinal illness in late 2012, United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) flew in medicine by helicopter. It sent $9 million of flu vaccines to Laos, too, keeping them at a constant temperature for five days across 9,000 miles.
Those journeys show how far UPS is venturing beyond its signature brown delivery vans in pursuit of a $50 billion global health-care supply chain market. Seeking new business as overnight shipments slump, Atlanta-based UPS and FedEx Corp. (FDX) want to take advantage of annual gains in medical cargo demand topping 20 percent.
Both companies have more than doubled their dedicated health-care storage and handling space in the past five years to take advantage of a business with potential operating margins of 15 percent or higher, dwarfing industrywide operating margins that average 5 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
