Case.Sample operation: Accelerating innovation through smarter sample management

Every customer journey begins with a sample. It is the first tangible expression of IMCD’s technical expertise, product portfolio, and commitment to supporting customer innovation. Ensuring that each sample arrives quickly, correctly packaged, fully documented, and ready for global shipment is essential, not only for customer satisfaction, but for accelerating commercial success.

Our customers depend on these samples to evaluate performance, run application tests, validate quality, and ultimately make decisions that influence production and product launches.

This is why IMCD worked with its long-standing partner for the management of samples, to establish in 2025 a new centralised, highly efficient, sampling infrastructure that allows us to shorten the time between inquiry and testing.

The new set-up allows IMCD to move from single sample management approach where each sample request was handled from each IMCD operating company and send to the requester, to a centralised approach where all sample requests are handled from three sampling hubs.

IMCD AR25 - Spotlight Layout_Supply chain graphic (1)

"A customer evaluating a new ingredient can only move forward as quickly as the samples they receive. Delays slow down development timelines, postpone testing cycles, and can influence a customer’s choice of supplier."

Stan Bijsterveld

Global Operations Director IMCD

Faster samples mean faster evaluations, and faster routes to market. That is why IMCD pairs its partner's sampling capabilities with its own digital opportunity pipeline. Every sample request is digitally linked to a commercial opportunity, allowing IMCD to:

Track where samples are sent and why;
Monitor the progress of customer trials; and
Follow up with targeted technical and commercial support

This connection between logistics and commercial data gives IMCD and our principal suppliers clear visibility into the value of each sample. It also ensures that no customer trial is left unsupported.

Operational excellence

In today’s dynamic market environment, flexibility and operational excellence are not just competitive advantages, they are baseline expectations. At IMCD, we have long been committed to simplifying the way our principal suppliers and customers do business with us. This year, we have taken a step forward to transform our previously decentralised sample management model into one unified, fully aligned operation.

Sample operation: Accelerating innovation through smarter sample management

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