Business Solutions & Innovation

Business solutions and innovation is something we are passionate about. It underpins our ‘can-do’ culture and entrepreneurial spirit and is central to our organic growth. It is also a key factor in identifying appropriate M&A targets.

Business Resilience

 Business resilience remained a key focus during 2022, as businesses globally were impacted by macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges across all markets. The resilience and dedication of our teams coupled with clear strategic objectives and agility to adapt traditional business models meant the Group was well positioned to continue to deliver for all of our stakeholders. The Group’s diversity in product portfolios and services offerings, as well as our digital capabilities were key to the Group’s continued success during 2022.

The Group is embarking on a five-year digital transformation strategy, which will include back-office systems to support our expansion and growth plans, as well as new ways to engage our customers with innovative digital solutions. We have also commenced a cybersecurity improvement programme, deploying best-in-class security controls to reduce risk and improve resilience. The programme is enhancing the detection of cyber threats, as well as improving our ability to respond to attacks and recover from incidents. The programme is evolving in the face of the shifting threat landscape to address changing tactics, techniques, and procedures.

Innovation

Uniphar prides itself on its innovative and entrepreneurial culture. This is evident in all areas of the business, from implementing improvements in existing systems, to identifying new market opportunities, evaluating acquisition targets, and enhancing our digital capabilities. The acquisitions completed in 2022 reflect the Group’s commitment to delivering innovative solutions for our customers. Each of the acquisitions brings with them a proven management team with the entrepreneurial ambition to innovatively solve problems by viewing them from new perspectives.

In Supply Chain & Retail, our multi-year investment in Greenogue 2 will deliver a flagship European site that will transform how the division operates, including a step-change in automation, order line handling, operational efficiency and digital capability. We expect that this will further differentiate our customer offering and will help drive further market share growth.

In Commercial & Clinical MedTech, we are working with our partners to bring innovative minimally invasive surgery techniques (MIS), supported with robotic technology, to market. Examples of areas where we are enabling MIS include laparoscopy, orthopaedics and vascular surgery.

Product Access continues to support manufacturers to bring new therapies to patients using the latest science in areas such as gene therapy.

Supply Chain Management

As set out above, a large proportion of our carbon footprint derives from our purchased goods and services. As part of our commitment to setting a science based target, we have committed to a supplier engagement target that 71% of our suppliers by emissions covering purchased goods and services, will have science-based targets by 2028. In order to achieve this target, we need to actively engage with our suppliers to improve data collection in our supply chain and to work together to not only set targets, but to find innovative solutions to how we can collectively reduce the impact of our supply chain on the environment. The Group is also working on implementing a new Supplier Code of Conduct and Responsible Sourcing Policy, which the Group intends to roll out during 2023.