The Vessel Management Center sets new standards in pharmaceutical logistics

GRIESHABER Logistik GmbH opens its new Vessel Management Center in Ravensburg and celebrates the launch with an expert conference and opening ceremony.

Ravensburg, 03.07.2025 – With the new Vessel Management Center (VMC) in Ravensburg Schmalegg, GRIESHABER Logistik GmbH is setting new standards in the world of pharmaceutical logistics. The milestone was celebrated on June 24, 2025 with an expert conference, followed by the opening ceremony on June 26.

At the start of the VMC, high-ranking pharmaceutical experts came to Ravensburg to provide comprehensive insights into the latest developments and best practices in GMP pharmaceutical services at an expert conference. With presentations on topics such as purified water and innovative, GMP-compliant plant design, the expert conference was characterized by modernity, progress and innovation. Around 80 visitors, mainly from the pharmaceutical industry, engaged in a lively exchange about the latest technologies and the newly created opportunities at the Vessel Management Center at GRIESHABER Logistik. "With the expert conference, we succeeded in demonstrating our path from GDP logistics provider to GMP pharmaceutical service provider. We are delighted that we can set an example and play a pioneering role in pharmaceutical logistics with our VMC," says Gregor Schnell, Managing Director Logistics and Supply Chain Management at GRIESHABER Logistik.

The 3,200^m2 pharmaceutical logistics hall currently offers space for around 650 pharmaceutical containers. The containers are used by the production sites of the Boehringer Ingelheim biopharma network and are cleaned, maintained, tested, stored and prepared for re-dispatch in the VMC in a one-way process in two clean rooms with a total area of 600^m2. The first logistics activities began just one year after the start of the project in May 2022. After the initial qualification measures and audits were successfully completed in June, the VMC will be fully operational in July of this year. Project manager and head of pharmaceutical logistics at GRIESHABER Logistik, Reinhard Kuen, is enthusiastic about the uniqueness of the project and the upcoming service: "We are one of the few logistics companies in the world that is qualified for such specific pharmaceutical services as cleaning and storing containers and meets the high requirements of the pharmaceutical industry."

The opening of the logistics center took place just two days after the expert conference. GRIESHABER Logistik celebrated the opening together with its customer Boehringer Ingelheim. It is an important milestone both for the twelve years of good cooperation between the two companies and for the pharmaceutical portfolio of GRIESHABER Logistik in the pharmaceutical industry. Operations will start in July 2025.

GRIESHABER Logistik and Boehringer Ingelheim are looking forward with great anticipation to the upcoming commissioning of the VMC and further cooperation. "GRIESHABER Logistik has developed new standards and raised the bar for logistics companies. We are delighted to have such a competent and qualified service provider at our side," says Andreas Bachmann, Logistics Projects and Outsourcing at Boehringer Ingelheim. Together, the two companies are setting a strong example of innovation, reliability and future-oriented partnership in pharmaceutical logistics.