DHL Supply Chain Türkiye and Lilly Türkiye expand their partnership of over 30 years with new cold room investment

Operating under DHL Group, the world's leading logistics company, DHL Supply Chain Türkiye has expanded the scope of services provided to its health logistics partner since 1995, Lilly Türkiye, through new investments.

The new cold room investment at the company's Avrupa 3 facility will support Lilly’s growing operations, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, while contributing to the secure, traceable, and quality-compliant management of sensitive healthcare products from storage to the final delivery point.

DHL Supply Chain Türkiye and Lilly Türkiye continue to grow their strong partnership with a new cold room investment implemented at the company’s Avrupa 3 facility. (Image: DHL Supply Chain)

Over more than three decades of collaboration, DHL Supply Chain Türkiye and Lilly Türkiye have expanded their transport operations from an initial footprint of just four provinces to a robust distribution network covering 97% of Türkiye. Since 2025, volume has doubled, while value-added service (VAS) volume has tripled. Supporting this extensive network, temperature-controlled vehicles operating within an active transport system deliver products directly from the warehouse to the final delivery point while maintaining the required temperature ranges throughout the journey. This approach eliminates the need for styrofoam packaging, contributing reducing packaging waste and enabling more sustainable operations.

Commenting on the subject, DHL Supply Chain Türkiye General Manager Buket Cox said, "As DHL Supply Chain Türkiye, we have been carrying out a long-standing business partnership based on trust with Lilly Türkiye since 1995. Over the past 30-plus years, in line with Lilly Türkiye’s growing operations and evolving needs, we have continuously developed our capacity, infrastructure, and capabilities to meet these requirements. The new cold room investment we implemented at our Avrupa 3 facility is a major testament to this approach. In health logistics, we do not only offer storage and transportation services. We contribute to our business partners' growth journeys with value-added services, temperature-controlled distribution, and end-to-end solutions. We are delighted to take our long-standing collaboration with Lilly Türkiye even further and to continue creating value together in the period ahead."

Lilly Türkiye General Manager Ryan Dawson said: "At Lilly, for 150 years we have been working to turn science into treatments that can make a meaningful difference in people's lives. However, for us, innovation is not solely about developing new treatments. We believe that the true impact of a medicine is realized when it reaches the patients who need it in a reliable and uninterrupted manner. Therefore, ensuring the continuity of access to our medicines is as critical a priority as developing innovative treatments. To meet patient needs in cardiometabolic health, we prioritize continuity and attach great importance to a strong supply chain infrastructure. Realized within the scope of our collaboration with DHL Supply Chain Türkiye, this new cold chain storage area represents an important milestone for our growing operations in Türkiye. As Lilly Türkiye, in line with our patient-centric approach, we will continue to grow alongside our business partners and add value to Türkiye's healthcare ecosystem."

This investment also supports DHL Group's Strategy 2030, which identifies Life Sciences & Healthcare as a key growth sector, globally. Through DHL Health Logistics, DHL Group is investing EUR 2 billion by 2030 to expand its health logistics capabilities worldwide, including specialized infrastructure and cold-chain solutions. Investments such as the expansion at the Avrupa 3 facility demonstrate how the corporate strategy is being implemented locally to directly support customers and the growing healthcare sector.

Source: DHL Supply Chain