Albéa strengthens manufacturing capabilities in China to tackle opportunities in new retail

The French firm said the new plant will be located in the city of Huai’an, which is two hours away from Shanghai by highspeed train.

The company said that the facility will become its new centre of excellence for the manufacturing of metal parts of cosmetic packaging.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on December 18 and will begin operations in 2020.

The company said it would expand down the line to offer ‘state-of-the-art’ injection, decoration and assembly.

“The new facility will offer state-of-the-art metal forming and anodizing as well as sophisticated decoration capabilities. This new plant in Huai’an reflects Albéa’s commitment to China as well as to its regional and international customers,”​ said Michael Zhang, vice-president and general manager of Albéa China.

Online driving growth

In the past few years, Albéa has been working to stay on track with the ‘booming’​ emerging market and established itself as an expert in make-up and skin care packaging in China.

Zhang said the company did this by aligning itself with local cosmetic brands that operate primarily online.

“Albéa has a good presence in China and are known as the experts of colour cosmetics and skin care packaging. The company has successfully established partnerships with many new e-commerce brands and provided them with our technology, products and services.”​

Zhang told CosmeticsDesign-Asia ​that the company expected to see significant growth in cosmetics in the next three to five years.

“The colour cosmetics and skin care market in China has been growing annually at a rate of 8% to 10% in the last five years. We believe it will keep growing by 8% yearly for the next three to five years.”​

He attributed this growth to the opportunities in the new retail model and the expanding reach of e-commerce.

“With China’s e-commerce platform and express logistics network, product availability is now extended to every corner of the country. This means the numbers of users are still growing,” ​he elaborated.

He added that foreign brands, particularly prestige ones were also working on increasing their online presence.

“All global luxury brands are also developing their online business and reducing the prices in order to be more competitive in China market. We are glad to see those luxury brands are also seeing significant growth rate in China.”​

Zhang estimated that the e-commerce business will grow as much as 30% this year, compared to 27% in 2018. and that the launch of the Huai’an facility will ensure the company is able to keep up with the increasing demands.

“Albéa will keep growing our business by following these trends. These trends give us the opportunity to win locally by developing new products, new technologies, new decorations and new services. With the new Huai’an new plant, it will give us more capacity and capabilities.”​