About RPC beaute'

 

We operate 3 manufacturing plants in Marolles-les-Braults, France (Le Mans area); Thornaby, UK (Newcastle area); and Mozzate Italy (Milan area).  We also operate a sales office in Brookfield, Connecticut (USA) and a logistic platform in Morgantown, Pennsylvania (USA).  Marolles is the main location where our competence centre is located regrouping industrial management, development, engineering, etc.

 

Our strategy is focussed on developing and producing custom/bespoke packaging for Global beauty leaders like Avon, Bourjois-Chanel, Boots, Clarins, Coty, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, Liz Claiborne, L`Oreal, LVMH, Mary Kay, Oriflame, PPR, Procter & Gamble, Revlon, Shiseido, Victoria`s Secret, Yves Rocher and others. The Company is a complete, single-source partner for cosmetics packaging design & development, manufacturing and logistics services; our manufacturing sites use the highest level of high speed automation in order to achieve competitiveness, zero-defect quality and a high flexibility and reactivity, which are all paramount expectations from Cosmetic brands. 

 

We are currently implementing state of the art automation in assembly and decoration, and most notably in our electroplating line (RPC beauty has leading capabilities in electroplating, with the widest finish range in the industry, a proprietary partial electroplating process and a combined lacquered electroplating capability allowing an infinite range of finishing shades). These actions were made possible thanks to major investments from our parent Group RPC, shortly after they acquired Crown Risdon, the Beauty division of Crown Holdings Europe in July 2006, which formed the core of RPC beaute. We are also engaged in the development of several major launches in high-end cosmetics and fragrances.

 

There is a major trend towards upgrading the value of cosmetic packaging.  This trend affects both the selective and mass market sectors. Brands are looking to upgrade their packaging, both functionally and aesthetically. This is triggered by the increasing need for brands to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded and competitive environment. As a result, packaging are ever more complex, whch offers us an opportunity to stand out thanks to our recognised expertise in complex packaging and to our capacity to innovate in manufacturing processes, allowing brands to afford highly sophisticated packaging at competitive prices. Another trend is `green` packaging, as brands want to respond to the growing concern of the consumers for sustainability, this includes using recycled resins or biomass-based polymers, designing packaging suitable for recycling or composting, etc.

 

I believe that the beauty industry is constantly innovating, and in fact one of the most innovative one. One figure illustrates this in a striking way: the French patent filling records - The first company in number of patents filled per year is Airbus, which is not surprising for an aerospace Group; number 2 is  l`Oreal, a less obvious guess; and a lot of this innovative activity relates to ways of dispensing cosmetic formulas, which involves packaging.  This stems from the fact that this industry is similar to fashion in the sense that the public expects a constant flow of novelty, one trend ousting the previous one.  In this context, brands are condemned to innovate at an ever increasing rate if they want to stay in the game, not to mention leading the game. 

 

Packaging is an integral part of cosmetics, even more so than most other consumer goods where packaging has a more `temporary` role, and is more and more considered as a `necessary evil`.  In cosmetics packaging plays a prominent role all the way through the entire product lifetime, both functionally -as ever more sophisticated formulas require similarly sophisticated packaging to dispense them - and aesthetically - as its design is an integral part of the brand image and the product concept. 

 

We, as packaging manufacturers, are constantly engaged in R&D and innovation to follow that trend, and hopefully to lead it in our respective specialties. Those who fail in that field become unable to fulfil the expectations of beauty brands and are rapidly marginalised - you only need explore the press and internet or analyse new product launches to convince yourself of this.