Premium Beauty News - We can say that you are now reaping the fruits of the reorganization work undertaken for the three past years.
Klaus Sindel - Our growth has exceeded 7% last year and we expect 11% this year. And don’t forget that we inaugurated in Bechhofen, just a year ago our new 2,500 sqm production site which therefore comes in addition to the existing 6,500 sqm. And we will have finished building a new storage centre of 1,500 sqm in November. Main objective at the time, increase by 15% our production capacity for mascaras, lip gloss and eyeliners, and also further develop our lacquering line with a capacity of 15 to 20 million pieces per year (a 1.5 million euros investment).
We also increased our decoration capacity (hot stamping, screen printing, pad printing, etc.) by about 30% (20% through the recovery of the industrial tool of Sun Creative Cosmetics and 10% by investing in new equipment). To date, we have thirty injection machines and a brand new 80-tonne press should be delivered to us in the coming days. Among the other consequences of this set of decisions, we worked on optimizing logistics flows, stepping up quality standards, reducing reaction time, increasing customer proximity and optimizing project management.
All in all, one of our key strengths today at Bechhofen stands in the full integration of the manufacturing process.
Premium Beauty News - How is your activity broken down between the different products you manufacture?
Thomas Hübner - Today, we can say that we have a total production capacity of approximately 70 million pieces per year which is broken down between mascaras, lip gloss, lipstick tubes, and other products, but in which the Mascara has the major percentage. One of our latest innovations, to be launched in the coming days, our new “Beth Mascara”, a model that we will be showcasing at Luxe Pack Monaco and which suits perfectly the current trend for larger sizes (16-18 ml).
Premium Beauty News - Can we speak of a revival of lipstick?
Thomas Hübner - We can actually say that. We are starting to feel the benefits of the take over of Schmidt & Niedermeier in 2010. We can rely for this activity on more than 250 plastic injection moulds and Rusi invested some 350,000 euros to upgrade them. Demand is growing stronger. We have a production capacity of nearly 400,000 pieces per week. And, of course, we are working on new models coming from new pending patents.
