The Cosmetic Valley will boost Made in France innovation in make-up.
Press release from Marc-Antoine JAMET, president of COSMETIC VALLEY
150 specialists and professionals took part , this Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in the 9th edition of CONNEXIONS R&D , high-level meetings between research and the cosmetics industry organized in Orléans by the Cosmetic Valley with the support of the Centre-Val de Loire, its historic partner. World leader and champion of the French economy, the cosmetics industry thus examines and tests its ideas, its projects and its discoveries, each year, through an international and indisputable scientific filter. Half of the cosmetic products that will be sold within 5 years are not yet known. Several hundred new references are presented to European consumers every twelve months! In a highly competitive market where, alongside identified rivals, the United States, Japan, Italy, new players are appearing with Taiwan or Korea, the sector, to maintain its positions, must structure and strengthen its dynamics of . It obviously does this with the major groups in the sector and their laboratories. But it also does so with SMEs and at the service of SMEs, with public laboratories and universities. These direct exchanges are the originality of our technological partnerships. This unique diversity of stakeholders is our comparative advantage in global competition , a scientific and intellectual added value that other players do not have.
For the Competitiveness Cluster, these meetings also make it possible to highlight a triple reality . They bear witness first of all to its change in scale since the State entrusted it, no longer simply with structuring a territory locally, but with organizing the sector nationally . They then point out that its strength lies in its capacity for innovation, a pillar in its Made in France markets , in the same way as product authenticity, consumer safety and environmental protection. Finally, they demonstrate that it is now interested in all segments of its ecosystem , whether they are functional, as with the Cosvapex project, assessed less than a week ago in Rouen, which offers new solutions in international transport, customs clearance or the fight against counterfeiting, whether thematic and Cosmetic Valley takes note of the expansion of its skills by integrating into its scope both perfumes and skincare or make-up, which alone represents a market of 66 billion USD in strong growth and highly coveted by world leaders.
In order to respond to this specific challenge, COSMETIC VALLEY has been leading a working group for the past year bringing together major brands, manufacturers, suppliers of raw materials and packaging, which launched a call for make-up projects at the beginning of 2018. It is the success of this initiative - 37 projects received to date - which prompted COSMETIC VALLEY to dedicate the 2018 edition of CONNEXIONS R&D to it, giving innovative project leaders the opportunity to find partners to develop concepts and products. Consequently, the communications and conferences which form the framework of these meetings, preceding the pitches of 20 project leaders in assembly and a flight of BtoB meetings, saw the intervention of companies particularly involved in this field: the Japanese Daito Kasei will talk about pigments , Chanel and Clarins colors , an SME “Orléans Cosmetics” associated with Grenn ultrafine particles , Albéa Group packaging and the Bouche Rouge start-up which, hosted by Dior Recherches in Saint-Jean-de-Braye, has just launched a concept revolutionary lipstick.
Marc-Antoine JAMET, Chairman of the competitiveness cluster, declared: “ Innovation is the Holy Grail of our cluster, its engine of growth and its life insurance. I am delighted to see the creativity of French players in the make-up sector unfold, driven by young people, social networks, the need for tailor-made products. The prospects of this market, which is developing in Asia, offer new outlets, in particular for our SMEs and start-ups. Cosmetic Valley must continue to ramp up its make-up program with the primary objective of creating a FabLab on the make-up of tomorrow. It is therefore not a question of imitating what is already being done very well in France or Italy, of compensating or catching up, but of discerning today the trends, the components, the products of the future ”.
