The new office in Bologna will be the fourth of the company’s subsidiaries joining those in Spain, France and Germany.
Dr Domenico Palella will head up the new centre which replaces a distribution partnership that has been in place for fifteen years.
Strengthen market position
Lipotec wanted to strengthen its position in the market but finding a way to increase market presence within the distribution deal was difficult, explained Palella.
“We couldn’t find a deal that was a win-win situation for both of us, so we opened our own office,” he told CosmeticsDesign.com.
Italy is the fourth biggest market for cosmetics products and the third biggest producer, according to Colipa data.
This, coupled with the increasingly competitive market place prompted Lipotec to develop a base closer to its clients in the region.
“It is part of the Lipotec strategy to have as direct a relationship as possible with our key customers in key markets in order to get fast feedback,” explained Palella.
International expansion
The company has been following an active expansion plan this last year with new distribution partnerships in South America and Russsia.
In November 2008 Lipotec signed a partnership agreement with Biogeneris, which operated in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica, with plans to open offices in Nicaragua and Panama.
Back in July, the company entered into an agreement with NovaCom, covering Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.