Four agreements have been signed between Shanghai’s Fengxian District and the Intercos Group, an Italian company which ranks among the world leaders in the production of cosmetics for third parties, with a turnover of 700 million euros in 2016 and 13 production plants in 9 Countries around the world.
In talks with the Deputy Mayor, the company’s president and CEO, Dario Ferrari, illustrated Intercos’s history in China, where it has been present for 15 years with a 1500-worker production plant in Suzhou and one in Shanghai, and its future corporate strategy, which focuses around the creation of "Beauty Valley" in Fengxian. Starting from a cultural and knowledge-based approach (training young people wanting to specialise in the field of cosmetics), the project aims to favour “bottom-up” innovation through the creation of a R&D and innovation centre in partnership with Italian universities. The centre is planned to include a start-up accelerator and brand incubator and also involve young bloggers.
The Deputy Mayor of Shanghai, in reaffirming the cooperation of municipal and district authorities in the project, emphasised Fengxian’s ambition to become the Country’s major cosmetics district. At the ceremony held at the "Oriental Beauty Valley" in the Fengxian District, Intercos signed four agreements: a general Framework Agreement with the District; an Agreement for the Establishment of an innovation centre with the Oriental Beauty Valley Company of Fengxian; an Agreement on Education and Training with the Shanghai Institute of Technology, which several Italian universities intend to join, and an agreement with the Oriental Beauty Valley Company and the Fuaibao e-commerce group to establish an exhibition space at the Fiera Cosmoprof of BolognaFiere.
South Korea: ribbon-cutting at a new Intercos production plant
The ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Shinsegae Intercos Korea production plant was celebrated at the presence of Intercos President and CEO, Dario Ferrari, of local authorities and of the company’s major customers. The plant is a 50-50 Joint Venture between the Milan-based Intercos, which has a 40-year-long experience in producing cosmetic components for Italian and foreign brands, and Shinsegae International, a Korean leader in the distribution of high-end consumer goods owned by Lee family, the same that controls the Samsung Group.
Intercos has been operating in Korea since August 2014, when it opened a commercial branch and an innovation centre in Pangyo, not far from Seoul. Thanks to the newly opened plant that is expected to become fully operational in February, the Italian company will considerably expand its activities in the Country, with the primary aim of addressing the needs of its own Korean customers.
The production plant is situated in the cosmetics district of Osan and already employs 100 workers who are destined to grow gradually. Interos’s attention for this market is motivated by the exponential rise recorded in Korea’s cosmetics sector, whose brands and tendencies have become popular at international level during the past few years, especially in Asia. Korea’s perfume and cosmetics exports rose from 1.9 billion dollars in 2014 to 4.2 billion in 2016, 70% of which were earmarked for China and Hong Kong. Italy is Korea’s 17th outlet market and the third-largest in Europe after France and Spain, with imports from Korea worth 15.4 million dollars in 2016, showing an exponential increase from the 1.2 million dollars in 2014. Despite strong competition from local producers, the South Korean market is also appealing for Italian exporters, especially in luxury items. Out of Korea’s total 1.8 billion dollar imports in 2016 (+3.4%), Italy is its sixth-largest supplier, with exports amounting to 73.7 million dollars, up 10% from the previous year.