Gattefossé to bring beauty ingredient production to the Americas region

21-Dec-2020 - Last updated on 21-Dec-2020 at 23:27 GMT

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Late last week the specialty chemical company announced construction of a new production facility in Lufkin, Texas—a legally designated Foreign Trade Zone.

For the cosmetics and personal care industry (as well as for pharma), the Lyon, France – based company specializes in lipid chemistry and plant extraction technologies. And has to date, only operated production sites in France and Singapore.

Now in 2020, when the realities of a global pandemic have highlighted the importance of manufacturing and supply chain diversification, Gattefossé has invested in construction of a US facility.

“North America is a leading region for the global pharmaceutical and personal care industries in terms of innovation, production and consumption, and has therefore a major impact on worldwide trends,” points out Eric Brun, President and CEO of Gattefossé USA and Canada, in his recent remarks to the press.

“The opening of a manufacturing unit represents an essential milestone in our strategy to enhance our local presence and commitment to this important and influential market,” says Brun

And, he says, “the label ‘Made in USA’ will satisfy a strong demand expressed by our customers and the geographical location of this new site will facilitate logistics and supply chain.”

Brun also explains that—in 2024—customers in this country will be among the first to receive ingredient shipments from the Texas facility but that, in time, Gattefossé’s reach in the region will much broader: “Production in Texas is first intended to serve the North American market but will gradually be extended to other regions,” he says in this month’s press release.

New Gattefossé site expands company reach and environmental commitments

Gattefossé was established in 1880 and is to this day, a family owned business. In 1982 the company established Gattefossé USA as an affiliate company in 1982 and the Gattefossé Canada affiliate in 1997.

Professionals working in sales, marketing, technical support, logistics, and quality for the company have offices in Paramus, New Jersey here in the States, and in both Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec in Canada. The New Jersey site is also home a Gattefossé application labs, where the company’s formulations experts develop product formulations that showcase Gattefossé specialty ingredients.

Construction on the Lufkin, Texas, site is set to begin in the New Year. And Eduardo De Purgly, Gattefossé Group CEO, describes how the production expansion project fits with the company’s larger initiatives. “The international expansion of industrial operations is an essential step in the development of our Group,” De Purgly tells the press.

The new facility will be built to meet ISO environmental management standards: “This project,” he says, “meets the economic and environmental challenges set by the company as part of its global strategy: innovation, customer intimacy, geographic expansion and social responsibility. Controlling our environmental impact is a priority: Gattefossé headquarters will be ISO 14001 certified in 2021 and the new American site will also meet this requirement.”

The first Gattefossé beauty ingredient production facility in the US is in a Free Trade Zone

In late 2019 the City of Lufkin, Texas, announced having received approval as a Foreign Trade Zone. That’s the US designation for what’s known in the international business community as a Free Trade Zone. Some 30 cities in Texas have the designation and it incentivizes companies to do business, particularly manufacturing.

In this month’s press release, Gattefossé noted the designation in a paragraph about why the ingredient maker chose to locate in Lufkin. The company also noted Lifkin’s proximity to Houston, Texas, and its population of 35,000.

As the Lufkin, Texas, Economic Development site explains, “Foreign Trade Zones have designated property that is treated, in essence, like it’s outside the US. When a product leaves the zone, that’s when it faces import taxes….The usual formal CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] entry procedures and payments of duties are not required on the foreign merchandise unless and until it enters CBP territory for domestic consumption, at which point the importer generally has the choice of paying duties at the rate of either the original foreign materials or the finished product.