K-Beauty acquires its first production base in Europe
Targeting the high-end beauty market
with ‘Made in Italy’ products
Cosmax (Chairman Lee, Gyeong-soo), the world’s No. 1 cosmetics original development manufacturing (ODM), has acquired an Italian company, thereby securing a production base in Europe. This is the first case of a Korean cosmetics company acquiring a European ODM company to secure a production base, not just a brand. Cosmax plans to use this acquisition as a stepping-stone to target the European market in all directions.
Cosmax announced that it has signed a share-purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire a 51% stake in Keminova, an Italian cosmetics ODM company. Cosmax plans to finalize the deal by fulfilling the prerequisites such as approval by the Italian government by March.
Keminova is a cosmetics ODM company founded in 1985. Its headquarters is located in Brescia, about 100km from Milan. It achieved sales of KRW 18 billion last year, and has facilities capable of producing 20 million items of cosmetics annually.
Cosmax’s acquisition of Keminova is significant in terms that it marks the first time a Korean ODM company has established a production base in Europe. Major Korean cosmetics ODMs have primarily operated large-scale factories in Korea and China, but recently following the growing North American market size, they have expanded production facilities in the United States and Canada.
The Brescia region, where Keminova is located, is a densely populated cosmetics industry zone in northern Italy, spanning Brescia and Crema in Milan, and is known as ‘Beauty Valley.’ Major Italian ODM companies producing cosmetics containers and packaging companies are located in Beauty Valley, so Cosmax can form collaborations and value chains with local companies.
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