Prescription for success

After a three-year absence, the trophy is back in Winnipeg.

Last week, McKesson Canada named its 120,000-square-foot pharmaceutical distribution centre in the northwest part of the Manitoba capital its Distribution Centre of the Year. The award recognizes the facility’s role in helping essential medications reach communities across the province and some of Canada’s remote regions.

This is the fourth time the Winnipeg facility has earned the company-wide award since it opened five years ago. McKesson previously honoured the centre in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The recognition comes with a trophy, as well as a banner that was hung from the rafters on Thursday.

More than 100 employees work across the centre’s day-and-night operations, processing between 80,000 and 100,000 medication units daily. Last year, the centre distributed more than 21 million medication units while maintaining more than 99 per cent accuracy.

The Distribution Centre of the Year recognition is “an amazing honour,” said Robert West, director of operations at the Winnipeg facility.

“We’re happy to have it,” he said. “I know the work that my team does every day, and they’re putting in the work to put us in a position to win that award every year.”

The award is determined by performance against key performance indicators within McKesson’s “Culture of Excellence” framework, the company said.

The measures span safety, people, customers, regulatory compliance, distribution and overall success. Together, they provide an assessment of each facility’s ability to operate safely, serve customers reliably, meet regulatory requirements and deliver consistent results.

Tim Smith, senior vice-president of marketing and commercial operations at McKesson Canada, travelled from the company’s campus in the Greater Toronto Area to present the award.

Smith said, as someone who is originally from Winnipeg, he’s proud to see the local centre recognized for its work.

“Four times in five years is pretty impressive,” he said. “When you start to think about the constant and consistent delivery of adhering to regulations, safety standards, service level metrics, the 99 per cent (accuracy) — you start to really see a pattern start to develop on how well this DC (distribution centre) performs in particular.

“Certainly, under Robert’s guidance here, they’ve done a fantastic job and have been able to raise a number of the banners to the ceiling.”

Located on Haggart Avenue in the Northwest Business Park, the distribution centre opened in June 2021. It replaced a 30,000-sq.-ft. facility on Notre Dame Avenue, as well as a satellite centre that handled specialty pharmacy products — complex infusions for cancer and immunology drugs.

Around 1,400 Manitobans help build the $65-million facility, Smith said. “Being born and raised in Winnipeg, you love hearing investments of that size being put into your own backyard.”

The investment in Winnipeg coincided with construction of another distribution centre in Edmonton that is three times the size of its Winnipeg peer. They’re two of the five new distribution centres McKesson has built in the last eight years. (The company has a total of 11 distribution centres across the country.)

Through its various divisions, McKesson delivers one-third of all medications in Canada, making it the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the country.

The Winnipeg hub supports more than 1,100 hospitals, clinics and pharmacies across Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, northwestern Ontario and Nunavut.

It’s equipped with 3,000 sq. ft. of refrigerated storage capacity for temperature-sensitive medications and ultra-low temperature freezers for vaccine storage. All told, it carries more than 15,000 pharmaceutical products.

About 35 employees work the centre’s day shift, while around 65 show up at 5 p.m. for the night shift. Orders arrive by 6 p.m. and employees get them ready for pick up, which starts the next morning at 7:15 a.m.

The facility’s reach includes remote northern nursing stations in communities such as Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake in Nunavut. Some deliveries travel approximately 1,550 kilometres from Winnipeg and require a combination of ground, air and rail transportation, along with specialized temperature-control solutions to protect medications throughout the journey.

“When someone picks up a prescription at a pharmacy or hospital in Manitoba or southern Saskatchewan or northwestern Ontario, there’s an incredible team of Manitobans that made that a reality,” Smith said.

McKesson Canada employs 4,900 people across the country. Its parent company, Texas-based McKesson Corp., has 38,000 employees in the United States.

In the fiscal year that ended on March 31, McKesson Corp. generated total revenue of US$403.4 billion — a 12 per cent increase over the previous year.

For Smith, the best part about working at McKesson Canada is contributing to health care in the country.

“That’s why I joined the organization in the first place — was to really have an impact on the delivery of health care for Canadians,” he said. “McKesson, given their size, their breadth, their scale, their involvement, their commitment, was an opportunity for me to be able to do that.”

Meanwhile, West said he enjoys working for McKesson because of the employees at the Winnipeg distribution centre.

“I started on the floor and worked my way all the way up, so I’ve worked with a lot of these people my entire 17-year career. They’re my second family,” he said.

“What we’ve built here in Winnipeg has performed really well, and it’s a testament to my staff and all of their hard work and dedication. To be the leader of these people is really a privilege for me.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca