Imperial 
Health Sciences

Imperial is a leading force in African healthcare supply chain management. Our extensive network across the continent, coupled with our experience in all channels of the medical supply chain, means that we can offer our clients the trust and confidence that is key in the healthcare sector.

The Health Sciences business unit of Imperial in South Africa provides distribution solutions for clients across South Africa. In addition, it integrates tightly with the healthcare value added logistics and supply chain solutions offerings of the Managed Solutions business unit in the markets outside of South Africa and provides supply support into the Route-to-Market businesses of Imperial across Sub-Saharan Africa.

History

The Health Sciences business unit of Imperial in South Africa was established in 2000 as PHD. The company was bought by RTT, which changed its name to RTT Medical. Imperial acquired RTT Medical in January 2013 and renamed the business as Imperial Health Sciences (IHS).

Core business

Imperial is Africa’s leading partner in the healthcare supply chain. Our common purpose is to ensure the secure and sustainable supply of quality medicines to the people of Africa. Imperial Health Sciences operations are ISO9001:2015 certified for the receipt, storage and distribution of pharmaceuticals and other healthcare products. We provide warehousing and distribution services for over 33 multinational and South African manufacturers and deliver to more than six thousand hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, doctors, wholesalers and health stores. We process and deliver up to four thousand orders each day for customers in South Africa and almost two thousand export orders per month servicing export markets across Africa.

Service offering

• Warehousing and storage
• Cold storage and cold chain delivery
• Distribution
• We cater to the full spectrum of the healthcare market such as medical practitioners, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, health shops, wholesalers and retailers.

Key strengths

• Management information systems
• Quality management systems
• Dedicated and skilled people
• World-class capacity
• Innovative business solutions
• A service structure that allows our clients to define their own specific trading terms, stock strategies, pricing, credit and return policies. We support both public and private sector healthcare networks and have international aid and multilateral agency clients.
• Imperial runs SAP – the leading Enterprise Resource Planning system in the world. We interface directly with the major IT systems in our industry, receiving orders and providing real-time responses to Orderwise, X-procure, Repwise, Adcheck, Order Online, Surgicom and retail EDI systems.

Key clients

• International pharmaceutical and medical device companies
• International aid organisations and NGOs
• The South African National Department of Health

Geographical representation

In South Africa, our distribution and administration centres are in Centurion, Gauteng and Cape Town. Beyond SA, we operate healthcare distribution operations in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Malawi with downstream transportation partners providing reach into 26 other countries. Imperial also owns Route-to-Market operations in Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.