The transformation of CEVA Logistics’ healthcare strategy – led by industry veteran Eric ten Kate – is unfolding with quiet precision and sharp focus. As part of the CMA CGM Group and with a mandate rooted in operational excellence, digital intelligence, and regional depth, CEVA is redefining its position in a sector where precision and purpose converge.
How did your previous industry experience during the COVID-19 pandemic shape your transition to leading CEVA’s global healthcare division?
During the pandemic, I joined a unique initiative when my company’s entrepreneurial mindset led to the acquisition of a license for an antiviral and coordination of its production with partners. Clinical trials were conducted across multiple countries, finally securing approvals. The treatment is now in use after being sold to a Canadian company. This experience offered an entirely new perspective on healthcare and solidified my commitment to the sector.
Following M&A activity involving my former company, I joined its global healthcare organisation. After some time though, I was ready for a new challenge and became aware of an opportunity to join CEVA Logistics, part of the CMA CGM Group. With my track record in Europe and the Middle East, I was well suited to take on a global leadership role in healthcare logistics. The company’s entrepreneurial vision and willingness to invest meaningfully in the sector aligned closely with my own ambitions.
Since joining CEVA, I have remained based in Basel while overseeing the integration of Bolloré Logistics in my area, as well as shaping our near-term strategy. Our objective is to establish CEVA as a leading healthcare logistics provider, and we have a clear path to reach our ambition through a distinct, value-driven proposition to guide that transformation.
How is CEVA Logistics redefining its global healthcare strategy, and what priorities have shaped your mandate since joining the company?
CEVA Logistics has historically held strong positions across sectors such as automotive – enhanced by the 2022 acquisition of GEFCO – luxury, consumer retail, aerospace, and defence. More recently, however, the organisation has undertaken a deliberate and ambitious repositioning within healthcare, an effort significantly accelerated by the integration of Bolloré Logistics. This move has deepened CEVA’s capabilities in pharmaceuticals and medical devices, with major operations now supporting industry leaders including Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Medtronic, Bayer, and Convatec across key European hubs such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Italy.
Upon joining nearly two years ago, my remit was to transition healthcare from a promising yet fragmented segment into a globally credible vertical, able to compete with the market’s most established players. My predecessor approached the business from a high-level strategic lens, and we’re now adding the operational grounding needed to deliver consistency at scale. This renewed credibility has translated into increased engagement from global clients, including a wave of Requests for Quotation from companies such as Abbott and Johnson & Johnson. Our scope, once limited to in-warehouse logistics, now extends across the full supply chain, with a growing emphasis on outbound freight management, visibility solutions, and seamless customer integration through platforms such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Concurrently, we are rebalancing CEVA’s geographic exposure. While Europe continues to drive the majority of our healthcare revenue, we are actively scaling operations in North America, Asia-Pacific, and the newly defined IMEA region; encompassing India, the Middle East, and Africa. In the United States – the largest and most advanced healthcare logistics market globally – we are expanding through temperature-controlled facilities in Miami and Los Angeles, both of which serve as gateways to Latin America. In Saudi Arabia, our joint venture with Almajdouie Logistics has established an initial footprint from which to build a tailored regional model, with particular potential in generics and high-growth therapeutic areas.
All of this is supported by the infrastructure and vision to remain innovative. Innovation is embedded into our transformation: through initiatives such as our company’s TANGRAM training centre in Marseille, we are integrating technologies related to artificial intelligence, sustainability, and digital logistics to ensure CEVA not only competes, but leads. Our goal is clear; to position CEVA among the top three healthcare logistics providers globally through a combination of operational excellence, strategic focus, and long-term ambition.
How does CEVA approach the challenge of delivering globally consistent healthcare logistics solutions while remaining responsive to diverse local market conditions?
In healthcare logistics, standardisation and localisation must go hand in hand. At CEVA, our approach is rooted in the belief that while global consistency – in areas such as visibility, compliance, and operational discipline – is essential, true value lies in the ability to adapt these frameworks to the distinct realities of individual markets. To that end, we maintain a globally integrated structure with dedicated commercial and product development teams, complemented by regional commercial leads across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and the IMEA region. These regional teams are empowered to shape strategies that reflect local regulatory environments, infrastructure maturity, and customer expectations.
In IMEA, for example, our efforts are concentrated on four core markets – India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa – each requiring tailored solutions informed by deep local understanding. Similarly, in Latin America, our track record in Brazil, particularly with regulatory authorities such as ANVISA, serves as a benchmark as we evaluate scalable models for markets like Colombia. Central to our methodology is the development of a core end-to-end solution that ensures baseline excellence in shipment execution and data visibility, capabilities that, once established, create the trust required for clients to expand engagement.
This approach is further strengthened by our internal cross-sector collaboration. CEVA focuses on nine main industry verticals, including Consumer & Retail, Technology, Aerospace & Defence, Gov’t & Relief, and E-commerce, allowing for the transfer of innovation across sectors. In particular, the growing relevance of direct-to-patient models in healthcare is being informed by our experience in e-commerce, where last-mile precision and visibility are well-established. The convergence of these insights – applied thoughtfully and locally – allows us to deliver solutions that are both globally aligned and locally relevant, supported by a culture of innovation, shared learning, and client partnership.
What macro trends are reshaping healthcare logistics today, and how is CEVA positioning itself in response?
The healthcare logistics industry is experiencing a period of accelerated change, shaped by a convergence of geopolitical tension, structural shifts in trade flows, and ongoing disruptions across global supply chains. The renewed focus on nearshoring has prompted companies to reassess their manufacturing footprints to minimise exposure to potential import duties and supply volatility. Yet localisation brings its own vulnerabilities. A striking example came when Hurricane Helene incapacitated a major intravenous fluids plant in the U.S., creating a nationwide shortage that required more than USD 100 million in emergency air freight. Such events illustrate the need for diversified, resilient supply chains that are both globally integrated and locally responsive.
At the same time, the growing dominance of e-commerce has strained air freight capacity, driving prices to levels incompatible with the transport of lower-margin medical devices and generics. This, in turn, has led to a modal shift from air to ocean freight, influenced not only by cost considerations but by the increasing importance of environmental sustainability. Meanwhile, high-impact events such as the Suez Canal blockage and the ongoing Red Sea crisis have underscored the continued fragility of global logistics networks, reinforcing the importance of agility, contingency planning, and real-time visibility. In this climate, CEVA has prioritised the ability to anticipate and adapt, leveraging close client relationships to build integrated, end-to-end solutions that extend beyond traditional logistics execution.
The pandemic served as a pivotal moment, shifting industry expectations and revealing the limitations of transactional models. Clients are now seeking strategic partners capable of assuming greater responsibility across the supply chain – including quality assurance and regulatory compliance – allowing internal teams to refocus on their core competencies. This evolution has elevated the role of logistics from a cost centre to a strategic enabler. For CEVA, this means not only ensuring continuity and capacity in an ever-changing environment, but also building trust through transparency, operational excellence, and long-term value creation.
How does CEVA navigate regulatory complexity while ensuring compliance, continuity, and operational excellence across markets?
In the highly regulated world of healthcare logistics, compliance is not only a baseline requirement, it is a core element of partnership and credibility. At CEVA, we regard quality as a strategic function, often acting as our most effective liaison with customers, as it speaks the same operational and regulatory language. Our global Quality Management System (QMS) is built on internationally recognised standards, including Good Distribution Practice (GDP) guidelines and ISO 13485, and is adapted to meet the specific requirements of local authorities such as the U.S. FDA and Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA). Local quality experts play a pivotal role in identifying emerging regulatory changes and integrating them into the QMS, which is reviewed and signed off annually to ensure alignment across regions.
To stay ahead of evolving expectations, our teams actively engage with key industry forums and regulatory bodies, ensuring early visibility of changes that may impact our operations or client requirements. This forward-looking posture enables us to act pre-emptively, embedding functionality like serialisation into our Warehouse Management System (WMS) before it becomes mandatory in markets such as Latin America. Regulatory compliance at CEVA is not handled in isolation but through close collaboration between legal, quality, product, and commercial teams, ensuring that technical requirements are not only understood but translated into day-to-day execution. This is formalised through detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), often developed jointly with clients and tailored to national or even institutional specifications. While some documentation remains paper-based, the philosophy underpinning it is one of shared accountability and mutual transparency. Ultimately, our ability to maintain global consistency while flexibly adapting to local expectations allows us to build trust, minimise risk, and operate as a truly integrated partner in one of the most demanding sectors in logistics.
How is CEVA leveraging digital innovation to deliver greater visibility, responsiveness, and value across the healthcare supply chain?
The pace of digital transformation in logistics has become a defining force in healthcare supply chains, where traceability, integrity, and resilience are no longer optional but essential. At CEVA, our digital strategy centres on building intelligent, responsive systems that provide real-time visibility and actionable insight across every touchpoint. While the market has evolved beyond basic track-and-trace, healthcare clients demand far more validated, end-to-end transparency that enables not only monitoring but proactive intervention. To support this, we have invested in an innovation hub based in France, tasked with identifying and integrating meaningful technologies, including artificial intelligence, to anticipate risks and optimise performance. Among our core developments is the implementation of a “follow-the-sun” control tower model, designed to ensure seamless 24/7 oversight. As one region closes, another takes over, maintaining uninterrupted global coordination, be it in response to a snowstorm in Chicago, delays in Frankfurt, or rerouting needs in Singapore.
Fundamental to this vision is the integration of diverse data sources – vehicle and aircraft telematics, weather patterns, traffic flows, and packaging sensors – into a unified platform that supports predictive lane risk assessments and route validation. While such precision introduces complexity, particularly in managing discrepancies across data loggers, it also reinforces the need for a singular verified view of events, a shared “source of truth” made possible only through transparent collaboration across all supply chain partners. This is particularly crucial in healthcare, where the stakes are high and the ultimate objective is patient safety. CEVA’s digital infrastructure is therefore built not just to manage logistics, but to demonstrate that medicines have remained authentic, within the correct temperature range, and fully compliant throughout their journey.
Beyond infrastructure, this digital evolution is redefining how we engage with our clients. We differentiate between SME, lead, and Century Accounts, offering our most strategic partners dedicated teams, executive sponsors, and direct access to decision-makers. These relationships are no longer transactional; they are grounded in strategic dialogue and co-created solutions. Increasingly, we are asked not simply to deliver, but to advise, translating insight into action, and technology into long-term value. In this context, competition becomes a driver of excellence, pushing all players to refine their offering. At CEVA, we welcome this dynamic, as it compels us to deliver not only operational precision, but also meaningful partnership.
What role is CEVA playing in helping clients meet their sustainability and ESG goals, and how is the organisation approaching this transformation internally?
As healthcare companies deepen their commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals, logistics providers have become essential partners in operationalising these ambitions. At CEVA, sustainability is embedded in both our internal roadmap – anchored by a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 – and our client-facing operations, where we play an increasingly strategic role. While our influence on direct emissions is limited, we are deeply involved in Scope 3 emissions, where collaboration with customers is most impactful. Internally, we continue to invest in certified green infrastructure, including LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-accredited warehouses, solar energy systems, and the phased integration of electric vehicles. However, the broader opportunity lies in reconfiguring supply chains to support emissions reduction at scale, most notably by accelerating the modal shift from air to ocean freight, ensuring that only time-sensitive goods are flown. This transition, while operationally complex, significantly reduces carbon intensity and aligns with the long-term environmental strategies of many of our pharmaceutical partners, some of whom have issued sustainability-linked bonds with measurable environmental performance targets.
CEVA’s position within the CMA CGM Group strengthens this commitment, giving us access to a close ocean freight partner with a growing fleet of liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered vessels and a broader sustainability infrastructure. Yet, external factors continue to present headwinds. Persistent congestion in air freight – fuelled by e-commerce growth – alongside geopolitical developments add layers of complexity. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), while widely endorsed, remains economically prohibitive, raising unresolved questions about cost-sharing across manufacturers, logistics providers, and end users. Broader infrastructure challenges persist as well; for example, while we’re advancing and adding to our fleet, the current scalability of electric vehicle fleets remains limited by regional energy constraints. In this context, CEVA advocates for a pragmatic and collaborative approach, engaging openly with clients to align ambition with operational feasibility. Sustainability in healthcare logistics is no longer a value-add but a strategic imperative, and our role is not only to ensure compliance, but to help build resilient, future-ready supply chains capable of delivering on both commercial and environmental expectations.
How is CEVA differentiating itself in a competitive healthcare logistics landscape, and what message do you hope to convey to clients and partners?
In a highly competitive and often commoditised logistics environment, CEVA distinguishes itself through a clear, patient-centric philosophy. Our “CEVA ForPatients” platform is not just a service line, it is a mindset that integrates air, ocean, ground, and contract logistics with the awareness that every shipment ultimately impacts a life. This is more than a narrative; it reflects a shared conviction across our leadership and teams, many of whom have experienced firsthand the human value of healthcare logistics, whether delivering life-saving devices or relying on them themselves. These moments reinforce that while logistics is a business, it also carries a moral dimension. We are not moving boxes; we are safeguarding therapies destined for real people whose well-being depends on precision and care.
This ethos also shapes how we build partnerships. While automation and digital tools are essential, we believe that true service excellence still requires human responsiveness and trust. Clients must know that someone is accountable, accessible, and equipped to act when needed. Our ambition is not just to deliver on service level agreements, but to proactively flag risks, maintain full visibility, and act as a seamless extension of the client’s own team. That trust becomes the foundation for broader collaboration – with packaging providers such as SkyCell and CSafe, for example – where we align on shared standards and solutions. We are also mindful of the industry’s evolution: while areas like cell and gene therapy are gaining attention, they remain highly individualised and difficult to scale. CEVA’s current focus is on spaces where we can deliver both operational excellence and systemic impact. In doing so, we aim not simply to differentiate, but to redefine what healthcare logistics should be: purpose-driven, patient-aware, and grounded in long-term partnership.
Where will CEVA’s strategic priorities lie in the coming years, and what direction will define your focus through 2025 and 2026?
Looking ahead, CEVA’s strategic focus will centre on selected high-impact markets, the continued refinement of our value proposition, and an uncompromising commitment to operational excellence. North America stands out as our foremost priority, undoubtedly the world’s most significant healthcare market, but also one shaped by constant disruption. Where disruption occurs, logistics must bring clarity, resilience, and speed, and we intend to meet that need with precision. However, our strategy is not to compete everywhere indiscriminately. We are deliberate in choosing where to lead, entering markets only when we are confident we can deliver sustained value. This approach is underpinned by a mindset we reinforce across the network: “excellence or nothing.” We expect full accountability, either we meet expectations, or we acknowledge limitations transparently and adapt accordingly.
Beyond North America, we continue to see strong potential in emerging regions. I remain personally energised by the opportunities in Latin America and the IMEA region where market growth is paired with a need for infrastructure modernisation and innovative thinking. These are environments where our experience and flexibility can generate meaningful impact. I also recently returned from China with renewed perspective; the pace of technological adoption, the maturity of digital ecosystems, and the visible investment in sustainability – particularly in electric mobility – are not only impressive, but instructive. They signal how quickly a logistics landscape can evolve when innovation is embedded at scale. As we move forward, CEVA’s ambition is to combine precision with purpose: to grow where we can lead, to partner where we can create value, and to ensure that logistics becomes not just an enabler of healthcare delivery, but a force for advancing systems that are more responsive, sustainable, and patient-focused.
