The renowned German pencil maker produces cosmetic solutions for face, eyes, lips, and nails. Faber-Castell maintains full vertically integrated production facilities in Germany and opened an overseas production site in Brazil 5 years ago.
Now Dr. Christina Zech, managing director of Faber-Castell Cosmetics, tells Cosmetics Design that the company’s next production facility will be here in the US—in Elgin, Illinois.
New location
Chicago-adjacent, Elgin, Illinois, is equidistant from the East and West Coast markets in the US and globally connected too, thanks to its proximity (30 minutes) from O’Hair International Airport. And location was a key reason Faber-Castell chose their site, says Zech.
The area also has a ready, skilled technical workforce, and welcomes foreign investment, she tells Cosmetics Design. Faber-Castell worked closely with a group called Intersect Illinois that helps business locate in the state and was particularly happy, according to Zech, to assist a clean industrial business like Faber-Castell find a home in Illinois.
The new facility will be “commissioned in the first half of 2019,” according to press materials shared by Faber-Castell at Wednesday’s reception.
Speaking to size and scope of the new facility, in printed remarks, Countess Mary Von Faber-Castell says, “This state-of-the-art manufacturing plant with an initial space occupied of 45,000 sq. ft entirely dedicated to manufacture of our cosmetics will employ about thirty people.”
Original strategy
Faber-Castell Cosmetics prides itself on having a fully integrated manufacturing business. And that will be the case in Elgin, Illinois, as well.
To bring the company's signature quality and short lead times to the region, Faber-Castell is setting up its new site with the same vertically integrated process and agile supply chain, says Zech.
“This is a big step for us,” Von Faber-Castell tells the press, “but an even bigger step for our customers, since we will be starting several different product lines tailored to their needs,” she says, hinting at new innovations to come.
“This new plant will offer customers in the US the same speed-to-market and convienice as in Europe or Brazil,” says Von Faber-Castell.
New innovations and collection
While in New York City this week, the company is exhibiting its latest cosmetics solutions at MakeUp in New York. At the trade show, Faber-Castell is featuring a ready-to-market collection of eye, lip, and completion pens and pencils (with a sort of around-the-world naming strategy ), including Oriental Glow, “a golden liner infused with metallic pearls”; Scandinavian Style, “a dye-stuff lipstick with staining effect;” and Aloha Kiss, “a glossy lip balm with radiant glow under black light.”
And at Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna earlier this year, the company launched Blush Freckles and Fun Freckles—solutions for a very popular emerging color trend (makeup freckles).
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.