Geka eyes further expansion into US market

Germany-based cosmetic brush specialist Geka is targeting further expansion in the US by ramping up production and appointing a key executive.

The company has announced that Raymond Legassie will take on the role of president of its North America operations at the end of this month, who will be charged with the responsiblity of expanding production through targeted product development.

Legassie, who has over 20 years of cosmetics industry experience behind him, will be based at the company's US headquarter in Elgin, Illinois, which is also where its manufacturing facilities are located.

He will report direcly to Geka CEO Franco Lucá at the company’s headquarters in Bechhofen, Germany.

According to Geka, this will provide an ‘important connecting link’ between the company’s operations in Germany and the United States, allowing for its expansion policies to be implemented with greater ease and speed.

Improved connection to customers

“For Geka’s customers, this means that the company will be able to work more intensively in the future to fulfill individual requests and produce specific solutions locally,” the company said in a statement.

“The result will be shorter logistical paths and increased proximity to customers in order to keep coordination processes running smoothly.”

Geka Brush was established in 1925, but has specialised in the manufacture of brushes for the cosmetics industry since the 1980s.

The company currently has 30 fully automated brush manufacturing machines and produces more then 800 different types of brushes for its clients, who include Revlon, Max Factor, Rimmel and Clinique.

Geka links with Ancorotti

Last year Geka announced that it was joining forces with Italian company Ancorotti Cosmetics to collaborate in the packaging, application and formulation of eye make-up.

The collaboration is aimed at combining forces in an effort to share ideas on innovation and design for mascara applicators.

Likewise, Geka will help Ancorotti to build a successful synergy between packaging, applicators and formulation as the Italian company moves into the manufacture of foundations and lip glosses.