Supply Chain Valley: New innovation hub in Venlo

At the end of August several companies, amongst them vidaXL, Moonen Packaging, Seacon Logistics, Arvato Supply Chain Solutions and Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (BISCI), joined together to create Supply Chain Valley (SCV). The SCV is a collaboration that seeks to work with government, companies and academia to deliver joint goals that result in great outcomes for all involved and the wider environment, society and economy. They release their joint mission statement as follows:

“We, organisations work together on joint projects to achieve tangible results in the areas of; sustainability, end to end digital supply chain, shared economy, workforce of the future and warehouse of the future”

The SCV was seeded as an idea last year by vidaXL, bringing on board BISCI to develop the idea into the collaboration it is today, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding amongst the companies at the end of August. SCV is centred in Venlo, strengthening the region as a supply chain and logistics hub for Northern Europe. This team of companies is supported by first-class research and guidance from Maastricht University, TNO, Fontys University of Applied Sciences and Zuyd University of Applied Sciences through BISCI.

“Innovation, learning & development are the key drivers of sustainable growth, for people, companies and communities. Collaboration between a strong set of partners accelerates the development on these areas and enables us to remain relevant and become leading in the future.” – Erik van der Hooft, Supply Chain Manager, vidaXL

“We attach great importance to sustainability and also to new talents at Arvato. With the creation of the supply chain valley we formalize our relationship with Maastricht University, and we will also combine forces with the partner companies to drive innovations to the next level”- Patrick Manders, VP Solution Design, Arvato Supply Chain Solutions

Supply Chain Valley understands that value chain innovation can’t be seen as a stand-alone goal, it must consider human interaction, change management, education, health and safety, natural resource consumption, production emissions, digital technology and other social and environmental externalities of business actions (positive and negative). The core purpose of SCV is to deliver environmental, social and economic benefit to the members and their stakeholders, through the delivery of joint projects that solve today’s business problems with solutions fit for tomorrow, ensuring companies remain strong into the future. However, the SCV is also collaborating with educational institutions to provide internships and employment opportunities to students and graduates of all levels. Senior academics will be invited for guest lectures and vice versa, there will be guest lectures from businesses in academic settings, to foster mutual learning. To facilitate these additional goals, the SCV envisages an inspiring environment with workspaces, lecture room(s) and meeting rooms, right in the heart of Venlo. vidaXL will develop this facility in 2021, with a mock-up of the design below. These facilities will be open for students, government, start-ups and others with inspiring ideas where they can work, collaborate and learn together.

vidaXL’s ambition is to become a future industry leader in ecommerce, and believes a strong ecosystem with connections between government, companies and education is essential to achieve this. vidaXL fosters the seeds planted for the Supply Chain Valley as only together larger future challenges can be solved, by sharing knowledge, ideas and talented people. By educating students at all levels with a fresh look on things, and collaborating with companies with years of experience in sustainability and supply chain management, this initiative leads to perfect synergy. Therefore, the word that best describes the Supply Chain Valley, is ‘collaboration’, according to vidaXL.

Supply Chain Valley is an ambitious collaboration of organisations with a long term vision for value creation in the Limburg region and beyond, for the whole of Northern Europe. If you would like any further information on the work the SCV is doing please contact us at [email protected].

Placed on: 6 October 2020