The personal care contract manufacturing market is projected to be worth $40.5 billion by 2030, representing a growth rate of 8.7% annuallya. These indispensable innovation partners have also become attractive acquisition/investment targets due to the uncertainties that often face consumer beauty and personal care brands. In fact, per a Capstone Partners reportb, manufacturers with an “established blue-chip client base” are most attractive and offer “buy-and-build” opportunities for scaling operations. The firm concludes, “contract manufacturers with expansive capabilities, product expertise and efficient manufacturing operations are expected to continue to draw sponsor interest.” Looking at the current landscape of beauty manufacturing, a number of themes have emerged, including operations with differentiating technologies and enhanced capabilities via vertical integration.
Log in to view the full article
The personal care contract manufacturing market is projected to be worth $40.5 billion by 2030, representing a growth rate of 8.7% annuallya. These indispensable innovation partners have also become attractive acquisition/investment targets due to the uncertainties that often face consumer beauty and personal care brands. In fact, per a Capstone Partners reportb, manufacturers with an “established blue-chip client base” are most attractive and offer “buy-and-build” opportunities for scaling operations. The firm concludes, “contract manufacturers with expansive capabilities, product expertise and efficient manufacturing operations are expected to continue to draw sponsor interest.” Looking at the current landscape of beauty manufacturing, a number of themes have emerged, including operations with differentiating technologies and enhanced capabilities via vertical integration.
Biotech Beauty Without the Heavy R&D Costs
Debut is democratizing access to the biotech revolution with the launch of BiotechXBeautyLabs, a contract manufacturing and formulation development platform that provides brands of various sizes with access to high-performance, sustainable biotech ingredients incorporated into custom formulations and white label products.
BiotechXBeautyLabs is Opening Access to Biotech
"BiotechXBeautyLabs is a biotech formulation development and contract manufacturing business that offers the ultimate competitive advantage to beauty brands: product innovation driven by biotechnology," says Debut founder and CEO Joshua Britton, Ph.D.Billy Economou, BE Studios
The new business reportedly provides global brands with speed-to-market without upfront research costs associated with clinically tested ingredient technologies.
“BiotechXBeautyLabs is a biotech formulation development and contract manufacturing business that offers the ultimate competitive advantage to beauty brands: product innovation driven by biotechnology,” says Debut founder and CEO Joshua Britton, Ph.D. “With Debut as its parent company, BiotechXBeautyLabs enables brands, large and small, to gain access to novel, science-backed, peak-performing formulations that are 95% bio-based.”
Britton adds, “The new division also gives brands access to novel and, in many cases, groundbreaking marketing claims that draw upon Debut’s R&D innovation. No other beauty contract manufacturer offers access to biotech without the heavy R&D investment that would otherwise command up to tens of millions of dollars.”
On the cost front, Britton adds, “Our pricing is highly competitive given that we are disrupting the beauty contract manufacturing landscape with novel, high-performing ingredients and formulations that, in many cases, brands will be the first to bring to market.”
He concludes, “Our goal is for biotech formulations to be at a lower cost than petroleum or cultivated formulations due to their peak performance, meaning you need lower concentrations in a formulation (than what is typically on the market).”
Rapid Product Development, Proprietary Claims
BiotechXBeautyLabs can help brands develop biotech-powered beauty products in as little as three months by tapping into white label products. For customized formulations, that process is still as little as seven months.
To make these timelines possible, BiotechXBeautyLabs combines novel ingredient discovery, pre-clinical testing, formulation development, quality control production and a portfolio of 250 ingredient technologies reportedly consisting of more than 7,000 proprietary claims.
Each of those 250 ingredients “have been tested and validated with both pre-clinical and clinical testing,” per Britton.
The result of these combined capabilities, according to the company, is a process that consistently and safely produces high-performance, efficacious products with standout claims. This focus on efficacy and claims is particularly crucial amid an uptick in consumer focus on expert-/clinically backed beauty.
“Debut is the only biotech beauty company with fully vertical integration capabilities, from ingredient discovery to finished products on the shelf,” says Britton. “We have spent the past five years developing advanced science to meet demand. Any company starting right now would take 7-10 years to come close to our level of capabilities.”
Tackling Emerging Claims
“Performance is at the core of what we do,” says Britton. “Since Debut was founded five years ago, we have obtained more than 70 patents on formulations and ingredients, and we are trusted by the biggest beauty companies in the world, including L’Oréal.”
He adds, “Our ingredient portfolio addresses many emerging consumer needs. For example, our novel polyphenol ingredients offer dramatically enhanced barrier protection and anti-aging benefits compared to current active ingredients on the market. This is a huge area for us as we have several superhero bioactive ingredients that powerfully rebuild the skin barrier and limit inflammaging. Importantly, these ingredients can only be made through biotechnology, not chemistry or cultivation.”
BiotechXBeautyLabs: Skin Care & Beyond
“We specialize in topical skin formulations and have actives and products for hair and body as well,” says Britton. “In addition to inflammaging, our ingredients coming to market address epidermal barrier repair for post-procedure care, skin brightening, anti-aging and scalp care.”
In fact, according to an official announcement, BiotechXBeautyLabs is “already collaborating with brands in hair, scalp, body care and nutrition.”
A Secure, Sustainable Supply Chain
BiotechXBeautyLabs’ use of biotech ingredients is intended to overcome rising regulatory challenges faced by many conventional technologies, including retinol. It also provides a secure supply chain that minimizes environmental impacts such as carbon emissions, energy consumption, and land and water use.
“Sustainability is a non-negotiable and an integral part of our offering,” says Britton. “Our ingredients and formulations are 95% biobased. Brands that partner with BiotechXBeautyLabs achieve superior ethical standards because our ingredients are not cultivated or derived from petroleum. There is no need for pesticides or toxic solvents in advanced biomanufacturing processes.”
He adds, “Our entire manufacturing is conducted in a tightly controlled facility where safety, purity, consistency and quality are hard-wired in all that we do. It’s a similar process to brewing beer, but instead we engineer microbes to do exactly what a plant does to create highly specific, high value, high-performance ingredients, while minimizing environmental impact (including land, water and carbon dioxide).”
Kolmar Brings K-beauty Expertise to North America
Kolmar Korea is boosting its North American cosmetics manufacturing capabilities by announcing plans to build a second U.S. plant in early 2025.Kolmar
The company has also appointed a new head for its North American operations; Yongchul Hur, who has experience in the company's China operations and previously served at Amorepacific, is taking the role of CEO of Kolmar Laboratories and Kolmar USA, its North American subsidiaries.
Simultaneously, Kolmar Korea has named Philippe Warnery (formerly of Intercos and Estee Lauder) global chief commercial officer. Moving forward, Kolmar Korea will be creating an R&D team for North America.
George Rivera (formerly of L'Oreal USA and Intercos) will serve as chief science officer of the North American subsidiary, while managing director Inki Park will act as the head of the R&D Center for North America, responsible for bridging the Korean and North American markets.
Park will focus on adapting core technologies developed at the Kolmar Group’s global R&D hub, located in South Korea, to the local market.
Growth Ahead for Kolmar Korea: Americas & Europe
The announcements come amid the company’s expanded push in the North American beauty market, which is projected to generate a revenue of $118.50 billion in 2024
The company is also building a sales network to support growth in Central and South America. Kolmar Korea reportedly aims to achieve $100 million in sales in the next five years.
Beyond these regional markets, the company will court indie K-beauty brands to bring Korean players to the U.S. market through channels such as Amazon. In addition, the company plans to grow its reach in Europe, per an official announcement.
ANJAC’s APR Beauty Acquisition Boosts Cosmetic & Turnkey Capabilities
In 2025, APR Beauty will relocate its Toronto-area site to a 100,000-square-foot refurbished site that expands its production capacity and offers a 20,000-square-foot R&I laboratory.APR/ANJAC
Paris-based ANJAC Health & Beauty, a manufacturer and filler of cosmetics, medical devices, drugs and food supplements, has invested in Toronto-area-based APR Beauty, thereby boosting its expertise in makeup, skin care and UV protection OTC products, particularly formulation, manufacturing, filling and turnkey capabilities.Prior to the investment, ANJAC already boasted sites in France, California, Spain and Canada.
Per ANJAC, 30% of its makeup customers already comprise American brands. This investment is part of a larger mission to expand ANJAC’s expertise in key markets and strengthen its turnkey offerings.
Irene Zheng and John Shen, co-founders of APR Beauty, will remain shareholders; Zheng will continue to serve as APR’s president and CEO. In 2025, APR Beauty will relocate its Toronto-area site to a 100,000-square-foot refurbished site that expands its production capacity and offers a 20,000-square-foot R&I laboratory.
APR Beauty’s Capabilities
APR Beauty’s specialties include powders, hot-pouring, emulsions and gels. The organization is also certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and COSMOS. APR’s Toronto-area operations include an R&D lab and a manufacturing and a filling site that employs 40 people. It also has a packaging design and sales office in New York, a sales presence in Los Angeles, and an operations office in Shanghai.
360-degree Service
“This adventure with ANJAC Health & Beauty is based on a shared ambition to provide 360° service, high added value and innovation for our customers,” says Zheng. “It represents a tremendous lever for acceleration through the sharing of know-how, commercial synergies, and the strengthening of our respective presences on the American market for ANJAC, and on the European market for APR Beauty.”
“We are delighted with this new step for the ANJAC Group, which is in line with our strategy of strengthening our service offering,” says Aurélien Chaufour, president of ANJAC Group, “pooling our expertise and expanding internationally. Irene Zheng is a seasoned entrepreneur with whom we share the same ambition: to offer our customers ever more innovative, healthy, natural, high-performance and turnkey beauty solutions.”
AI-based Product Authentication for Brands & Manufacturers
Amid a complex regulatory environment and increasing consumer demands for brand transparency, Systech, a specialist in regulatory compliance, supply chain and brand protection technology, is developing new tools for beauty manufacturers and brands.
The firm recently updated its UniSecure brand protection platform, which enables product security via serial number verification to thwart counterfeiters, secure QR codes to address diversion and collect data on market penetration and regional usage, and e-Fingerprint authentication to apply unique non-replicable identifiers during the packaging printing process.
The company has now added AI-based authentication, which assesses packaging artwork to determine products’ authenticity, per Systech. Dubbed UniSecure ArtAI, the technology “uses machine vision and machine learning to create a digital blueprint of the features of the packaging artwork,” per the company, which allows for product identification via pattern recognition.
UniSecure ArtAI can reportedly be quickly trained on artwork files for rapid deployment and can even be applied to products already in the marketplace. The system also offers real-time detection and investigation of supply chain threats.
Collectively, the UniSecure platform can reportedly defend brand integrity, fight counterfeiting, detect diversion and cut revenue losses, and ensure better consumer trust.
Boosting Skin Care & Makeup Manufacturing for a Solutions-based Future
“We are delighted to expand in beauty by benefiting from B.Kolor expertise," says Markus Rassmann, head of Givaudan Active Beauty. "This acquisition not only strengthens our capabilities in the fields of makeup and skin care, but also positions us as leaders in driving the market towards an ever more solutions-driven future.”Rido at Adobe Stock
In 2021, Givaudan acquired its first 25% of B.Kolormakeup & Skincare. By acquiring the remaining 75% stake, Givaudan is focused on expanding its expertise in skin care and makeup, as well as manufacturing services.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed; B.Kolor's business would have reportedly represented approximately CHF77 million of incremental sales to Givaudan’s results in 2023, per the company.
“After three years of successful partnership with B.Kolor, this is a great achievement for Givaudan to complete this acquisition, promising a very exciting journey," says Maurizio Volpi, president of Givaudan’s fragrance and beauty division. “By sharing our creative and innovation capabilities, we will generate additional value to our respective customers by providing a complete offer combining high level of science with excellence in design.”
“We are delighted to expand in beauty by benefiting from B.Kolor expertise,” says Markus Rassmann, head of Givaudan Active Beauty. “This acquisition not only strengthens our capabilities in the fields of makeup and skin care, but also positions us as leaders in driving the market towards an ever more solutions-driven future.”
Maria-Teresa Sancini, chairwoman of B.Kolor, says, “Joining Givaudan, the market leader, is a great opportunity to bring our businesses to new heights. Givaudan’s capabilities in creation, ingredients and technology will greatly support us in evolving our product offering, while benefiting from Givaudan’s customer base and geographical footprint to expand ourselves in new territories. We are very pleased to also share our unique creative design and production know-how with Givaudan to bring the products of tomorrow to life.”
FOOTNOTE
ahttps://mckinseywell.com/products/global-personal-care-contract-manufacturing-market-2023-2030
bwww.capstonepartners.com/insights/article-beauty-ma-update/
