Darren Shirley is the president of Apace Packaging, and founder and president of R&S Solutions. Since his entrance into the industry in 1995, he has been involved in numerous forms of the marketplace, including time spent with R&S Northeast, Apace Packaging and Amneal Pharmaceuticals. Established in 2005, Apace Packaging is a medium-sized, family-owned and operated contract packager based out of Fountain Run, KY. Its primary focus is bottling and blister packaging for the oral solid dose pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and OTC industry. The company offers a fully aggregated serialization solution for all manufacturing partners.  Darren’s experience in vendor relations, business development and partnering with manufacturers, sparked the idea for R&S Solutions, which was founded in 2017 to provide cost-effective, high-quality logistic services to the pharmaceutical and related health care industry. R&S Solutions recently changed its name to Direct Customer Solutions (DCS), coinciding with the opening of its new 232,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility in Bells, TN.

Contract Pharma: Please provide a little background about how you came into leadership roles at both Apace Packaging and Direct Customer Solutions?

Darren Shirley: My father and uncle started a pharmaceutical distribution company in the early 80s. All through high school, I worked in the warehouse. As I went on to college and got out of pharmacy school, I came back to work in the family business. It has been bred in me since early on in life. Our family works hard to provide high quality service in many areas of the pharmaceutical industry.

CP: How are the two organizations related and/or how do they complement one another?

Shirley: Apace Packaging is a contract packager for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and OTC industry. We specialize in bottling, unit dose and oral solid repackaging. Direct Customer Solutions (DCS) is a full-service logistics company. We specialize in high level service for third party logistics (3PL), as well as an alternative distributor on 340B, specialty and retail products for manufacturers. Our team has well over 100 years of industry experience.

Our goal at both companies is to bring long term value to our partners. With today’s environment, providing a quality service is harder than ever before. We strive to ensure that our partners see us as an asset, an extended arm of their company. We aim to keep this high level of quality up while additionally being innovative in everything we do.

CP: What are some of Apace’s business highlights from the past 12 months?

Shirley: In the past 12 months, Apace has not only added 20% space to the plant, but also added a new bottling line. We are in the process of integrating to a new serialization system. All of our companies are DSCSA compliant and aggregate to the unit level.

CP: How would you characterize the state of the contract packaging market?

Shirley: The contract packaging market is strained, in my opinion. It does not have enough capacity to meet the manufacturer demand. With COVID and delays in equipment purchases, the growth is robust, but the capacity is limited. The entire market is aggressively working through that.

CP: What are some trends and challenges contract packagers like Apace face in today’s market.

Shirley: The market today is very pressured, as the end users won’t allow any pricing concessions. Thus, margins are crunched, just like every other industry. Serialization systems and equipment delays, coupled with COVID and inflation, has made the industry face challenges across the board, but especially in packaging.

CP: What are some of DCS’ highlights from the past 12 months?

Shirley: Direct Customer Solutions just opened our brand new, automated warehouse. Our 232,000 square foot structure is built to maintain the highest level of customer care. Our automated storage and retrieval system houses over 20,000 pallets in our 100 feet high bay, which uses cranes and robots to move product securely from truck to storage and back to truck. Our vault and cage have an additional 5,000 pallets, and we can also accommodate cold storage products.

We have used our innovative resources to stay in constant motion for our partners. To our knowledge, there is not another system like this in the country. We are very excited, and very proud, to have just opened our new home. This facility, coupled with our transparent communication, alternative distribution options and high-quality service make us superior to the competition.

CP: What are the benefits of outsourcing cold storage and using a 3PL provider?

Shirley: Our level of service is our main priority. For cold chain, and any other service, we have found that we are an extended arm of the manufacturer. Our shipping team can work directly with you to schedule whatever you might need. Our quality team is first class, providing experience from a legal and regulatory perspective, thus keeping compliance at the forefront of company. Our technology allows you to see your products in real time, unlike many of our competitors. We track your product, report on your product and deliver a final result. You have direct access to our team daily. Our transparency allows your team to do more while we work with you.

CP: What are 3 trends and challenges impacting 3PL providers like DCS?

Shirley: Facility expansion is a definite trend, yet building supplies are scarce. Inflation is another trend that each and every company is dealing with in today’s marketplace. Lastly, COVID has not gone away, and I think is here to stay. This has affected worldwide supply chains that are constantly moving. Our challenge is keeping up with those trends, while keeping excellent employees healthy and happy at work. There have been lots of marketplace changes that have required adaptation.

CP: Anything else you’d like to share with Contract Pharma readers about Apace/DCS specifically or the markets you serve?

Shirley: As a family business, we strive to do all we can to maintain a transparent relationship with our customers and clients. Through the years, many changes have come and gone, but the marketplace allowed our family to remain steady and true.

I want to personally say “thank you” to each and every manufacturer and customer that does business with us. Without you, we wouldn’t have the privilege of working in this fantastic industry.

We aren’t perfect, but we are honest and trustworthy. Like most companies, we face challenges. In the end, we are truly thankful for what we have and hope to be around for many years to come.