Evonik merged personal care and household care in January 2019 to form the Care Solutions Business Line in order to position itself as a leading provider of innovative solutions in the care products market.
Evonik is pledging that its new organisational set-up will lead to more innovative products and leaner processes, with the firm focusing on “unique ingredients with obvious efficacy”.
Speaking at the recent PCHi show in Guangzhou, Evan Wu, vice president of Evonik business line Care Solutions, Asia Pacific, said it was a natural move.
“Personal care and household care are actually very close to each other as both markets are very consumer oriented and trend-driven,” Wu said.
“We see many of our customers are also growing rapidly and extend their range to both markets. Therefore by merging the units, we can leverage and improve our competency and innovation, and offer better and complete service and value to our customers,” added Ivy Hou, senior marketing manager, business line Care Solutions, Asia Pacific.
Driven to innovate
As APAC consumers become increasingly more educated and knowledgeable, the company says it is driven to innovate and develop unique, high-performing ingredients.
“Unique ingredients with higher and more obvious efficacy are something quite hot in the market. And to echo this, you can see that Evonik’s latest innovation for new launches are very much into this direction,” said Wu.
They highlighted RHEANCE One and NeoPlanta Withania, two ingredients Evonik showcased at the recent show.
They described RHEANCE One as a “breakthrough” ingredient for natural cleansing. The firm claims it is the first ever glycolipid and a new class of natural ingredient for rinse-off applications.
The product was recognised with gold awards from in-Cosmetics Global and in-Cosmetics Asia 2018.
A marriage of ancient remedies and advanced technology, NeoPlanta Withania is a biotechnologically optimised extract of a traditional Ayurvedic and the first product from Evonik’s Advanced Botanicals technology platform.
Trading-up trend
Wu noted that personal care consumers were demanding more from their products.
“The whole market is trading up. We see that consumers are demanding more good products with enjoyable user experience. Evonik is not just providing a single product but offering trends with solutions to support them.”.
For instance, the firm is focusing on the “skinification” of hair care – a trend which sees hair care being treated like skin care.
Micellar shampoo technology and new hair care textures were two of the concepts Evonik showcased at PCHi 2019 to address the hair care trend as well as the consumption upgrade trend.
The company also sees many regional needs growing in the diverse South Asian region, such as the Halal beauty trend.
Wu said, “Halal compliant products are growing a lot in South Asia and we now can offer complete solutions from single ingredient to formulations for both skin and hair application. Our regional focus approach and execution is really appreciated by our customers.”