Kuehne + Nagel adds CSafe RKN containers to its cold-chain services

Kuehne + Nagel (Basel, Switzerland) and CSafe LLC (Dayton, OH) have announced a master lease agreement whereby K+N will integrate CSafe’s RKN unit-load device into its global network of service centers, dedicated life sciences resources and tracking systems. The RKN is a container capable of carrying a full pallet in the belly of wide-body jets, while providing powered heating and cooling to maintain a specified product temperature. K+N has been building up its PharmaChain service over the past couple years, and introduced it to the US market in September.

“With embedding the CSafe container into our KN PharmaChain service offer, we are ensuring that our clients can take advantage of the CSafe RKN container reliability linked into a GXP compliant door-to-door process,” said Marcel Fujike, VP at K+N.

Meanwhile, CSafe is undergoing significant changes in its ownership. The company was started as a joint venture between AcuTemp, a temperature-controllled packaging vendor, and AmSafe, a supplier of aerospace equipment, in 2008. Now, CSafe is simultaneously buying out AmSafe and taking over the identity of AcuTemp, which will henceforward be known simply as CSafe. The AcuTemp and ThermoCor brandnames will be maintained.

“I have had the pleasure of leading both CSafe and AcuTemp as CEO and President since 2008 and it was clear from the beginning that the goal was to create a company that could provide our global life science customers a full line of both active and passive cold chain solutions,” said Brian Kohr, president, in a statement. “This is the start of an exciting phase of expansion for our business.”