Trade with Asia was only emerging when Gérard Gieux founded Cosmogen in 1982. At this time, he remembers, “95% of brushes used by French cosmetic brands came from Brittany.” Therefore, when Cosmogen provided for the first time Korean brushes to prestigious brands, “it was a revolution!”
Increased product complexity
However, since this first delivery, projects have followed one another and technological advances also. Today, the historic brush business still accounts for 30% of the company’s sales, but in parallel Cosmogen was able to develop a strong expertise in the application of care and makeup, leading it to propose solutions that combine packaging and applicators.
Thus, in 2005, the company opens its own research department at the Paris headquarters. No later than 2006, Squeeze’n Tint has emerged, giving rise to the Squeeze’n range. This line has now a dozen products and is the flagship of Cosmogen, which showcased the latest member of the family, Squeeze’n Clean, on the occasion of the last edition of Luxe Pack, in Monaco.
During this decade, Cosmogen also opened a sales office in New York (in 2009) and San Francisco (in 2012), as well as a technical and quality office in Shenzhen (in 2010). Eventually, in 2012, the team has grown with new staff and structured in areas of expertise to meet the needs of an increasingly large and demanding market.
“Complexity of demand and the emergence of new markets require us to be at the forefront of quality, reliability, responsiveness and innovation,” says Denis Richard-Orliange, Cosmogen General Manager. “The marketing and R&D department focuses all its efforts on anticipating technology trends in the marketplace, factory reliability and security of supply.”
A necessity in a market constantly seeking for new products and increased sophistication. “ Cosmetics are increasingly complex. The growing demand for functionalities and the fast changes of fashion and trends require creativity and responsiveness from us. Our customers need to boost their market to capture consumers who are highly stressed and therefore more volatile in their buying behavior. For their loyalty, brands offer therefore more new products, which will experience a shorter cycle of life. ”
30 years: the strength of experience?
According to the managing team, the turnover of Cosmogen will be around 20-million euros this year. A strong achievement compared to last year’s 17 million euros.
As far as the future is concerned, Cosmogen bets on the growth of its two major strategic activities: global packaging activity and care and makeup brush activity. “The packaging business is experiencing a natural impulse for the past 10 years. In 2013, we want to give more visibility to the brush activity,” says Denis Richard-Orliange.
Actually, in a context where brands market an increasing number of products that look like professional but are used at home, the two axes combine perfectly. “Already, we are seeing a new trend in their demand: our clients want to give their customers the choice between a global application solution that integrates packaging and the applicator, or a solution that separately offers a care and a range of applicators. For example, we developed the brush of the integrated packaging of SKIN Illusion, by Clarins. Meanwhile, we designed the Ridoki brush for Matis, a separate applicator. Our expertise in the application allows us to respond to these requests.”
One thing is certain for Cosmogen, these trends drive the development of permanent innovations.
