‘Our answer to latest trends in China’: New Givaudan facility to help firm respond to growing needs in sustainability and well-being

Based in Changzhou, the new facility is said to meet the highest global and local standards for fragrance manufacturing, including advanced environmental and health and safety features.

CEO Gilles Andrier said this facility demonstrated its commitment to China, an important high growth market for the firm.

“This investment will strengthen our position as a strategic partner to our customers in the region and will cater to the increasing consumer demands for great smelling sustainable fragrances.”​

Givaudan highlighted that the new facility would support its ambitions to meet the growing demand for sustainable fragrances in the Chinese market.

“Nowadays, any new production unit needs to support the way we do business, limit their environmental footprint while contributing to the sustainability agenda of our business and our products,” said​ Guang Yang head of operations APAC.

Yaling Li, head of fragrances China and Korea, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that the firm has observed a rising interest in sustainability as the importance of well-being grows among Chinese consumers.

“We are currently deploying the latest initiatives of Givaudan around naturality, and also holistic well-being with the recent launch of our VivaScentz fragrance design technology which is already gaining a lot of attention from customers in China.”​

She added: “This is perfectly fitting Givaudan’s purpose of creating for happier, healthier lives with love for nature.”​

Climate change advocate

Additionally, the Changzhou facility is fitted to support the firm’s “ambitious” climate action agenda, said Yang.

The production facility is equipped with energy-efficient facilities such as centralised chillers, variable speed drive motors and compressors as well as light-emitting diode (LED) lights.

“This will be further reinforced by installing solar panels on rooftops and the parking lots at the beginning of 2021, in line with Givaudan’s ambition of 100% renewable electricity by 2025. The capacity of solar plant on Chanzhoug site will be 1.2 MWp, generating 1260 MWh/year and reduce 815 tons of CO2 emission. This project brings us one step closer to climate positive.”​

Li highlighted that the beauty market in China was set to change rapidly due to the growth of the e-commerce business.

“The booming e-commerce enhanced by the power of [Key Opinion Leaders] and live streaming in China, will further drive segmentation and fragmentation of the beauty market. This will be reinforced by extensive use artificial intelligence,” ​said Li.

Yang said the new facility was equipped to tackle the rapidly moving Chinese market.

“Our new facility in Changzhou is part of ​our answer to the latest trends in China​. ​This state-of-the-art production unit has unparalleled capabilities in automation and is best prepared to cope with the agility and fragmentation that is required by the market.”​

Moving forward, Li said the firm was striving to have "a finger on the pulse”​ of the fast-changing market.

She elaborated it would do this by increasing the agility of its teams in terms of customer connection, development and production and speeding up its strategy.

Additionally, the firm plans to adapt its sustainability agenda to China while driving the growth in unique technologies in fragrance and well-being.

Lastly, Li said the firm intends to seamlessly integrate its recent acquisitions in China, such as Drom and Ungerer, to create a “perfect” ​footprint and service network.