‘Clearly a growth engine’: Elementis is turning towards Asia’s beauty and personal care market to drive future growth

The company’s Asia growth strategy was highly important to the company, said Jens Müller, global marketing director for personal care.

“We still have decent growth in all regions but clearly [Asia] is a growth engine. It’s a market growing above the average, so the whole Asia growth strategy is really important to us.”​

The factor that is driving the growth of the Asian market is the emphasis on premiumisation. While Asia has opportunities in skin care and colour cosmetics, the UK-headquartered company has more room to grow with the former.

“Because of the higher income per capita, the market is willing to invest in more sophisticated products. We are big in makeup, but we clearly want to focus and grow more in the skin care field. This market is willing to invest in more luxurious textures, which will help us to grow faster in Asia’s skin care market.”​

In particular, the company, which specialises in rheology modifiers, was eyeing opportunities in Asia’s sun care market, said Müller.

“The more sophisticated products need to get, the more we can play in the applications. We see that in sun care as well, where the driver is to have more sensorial experiences in sun care. Nobody wants to touch a sunscreen that is sticky and yucky.”​

He noted that Asian beauty consumers are more willing to pay for sun care products with more sophisticated textures, as compared to Western markets.

“In the Asian market, they are willing to invest way more in sun protection compared to Western markets, for example, Germany, where sunscreen is still seen as a very functional step and used when you go outdoors in the sun. And when you pay more, you want to have a pleasant sensory, quick absorption and no tackiness at all. That’s where we play well in.”​

Skin glow is in

The firm was at this year’s ingredients trade show in-cosmetics Global to introduce new ingredients in its Bentone range that meet the emerging ‘skin glow’ trend.

With increasing focus on health, having naturally radiant, healthy-looking skin is now an important barometer for beauty. Having skin care benefits is becoming important in colour cosmetics as well, blurring the lines between makeup and skin care.

“The skin glow trend is a seamless connection of skin care and makeup – products like BB creams, CC creams, and skin tone correctors,” ​Müller elaborated.

The company sees the increasing demand for such hybrid products as a tremendous opportunity.

“We are already very big in makeup, and we can bring our expertise in makeup into the realm of skin care. We have our Bentone Gel technology which brings the immediate uniform, glowing effect, and at the same time, it has this film-forming effect that helps keep the moisture.”​