Clariant opens new facility dedicated to active ingredients

Specialty chemicals player Clariant has opened a new facility in Toulouse, France, dedicated as the headquarters and laboratories to its active ingredients for personal care.

Active ingredients have become a vitally important aspect of beauty and personal care formulation in response to consumer demands for increasingly effective products, often with a range of functions.

"Clariant already possesses key elements vital to supporting this market, such as trusted partnerships with key players in this industry, unique access to natural cosmetic ingredients and strong experience in formulating products for personal care,”said Ernesto Horikoshi, Global Head of Active Ingredients.

“The newly established expert team and state-of-the-art facilities add the vital missing ingredients to steer this business successfully.”

Further expansion and focus on naturals

The facility will be focused on evolving and expanding the company’s portfolio of specialty formulation ingredients for skin care, hair care and body care applications worldwide, and the company says there are plans to further expand it during the course of 2017.

But more specifically, it will be dedicated to providing expert support the resulting specialized needs of the industry and will also be focused on nature-inspired active ingredients, feeding in to the massive natural and organics trend.

This means that the company will be focused on expanding its naturally-sourced portfolio of active ingredients, which includes extensive product ranges with strategic partners BioSpectrum and Beraca.

Biochemical capabilities

Currently the laboratories include pharmaceutical industry-standard capabilities for skin biology studies and testing, as well as biochemical capabilities focused on synthesizing unique outperforming molecules.

The new facilities, which was opened at the beginning of the year, are located in the Sanofi BioParc in Toulouse, supports a full staff of formulation professionals dedicated to the area of active ingredients.

Indeed, the company says that it chose the Toulouse area because it has developed a core expertise in biotechnology that has attracted a significant number of professionals with relevant experience, as well as development and partners and players related specifically to the cosmetics industry.