Premium Beauty News – How do you prepare for the future as make-up is recovering rapidly?
Paolo Valsecchi – As far as the pleasure of wearing make-up is concerned, consumers are back to their pre-pandemic habits! Sales of colour cosmetics are therefore growing around the world, in particular in North America.
At the Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna and MakeUp in Paris trade shows, we celebrated this return to the pleasure of make-up with a collection named “Seeking Joy”. As consumers are looking for fun and playfulness in all areas of life, we think emotional plurality will be a defining feature of 2020’s.
However, that does not mean the market did not transform compared to the pre-Covid era! The rise of online sales, the growing influence of social media and the search for more natural and sustainable products are some illustrations of the big shifts of the market .
Premium Beauty News – What are the consequences for Gotha Cosmetics?
Paolo Valsecchi – I think we need to invent something new!
The growing role of social media, for instance, has changed the game. Brands need to accelerate new products developments and to reduce time to market. From an industrial point of view, this means that we need to be closer to our customers, closer to end markets. In clear, we need to expand our global footprint with bigger capabilities in Europe, Asia and North America. In addition to expand geographically, we might also find interest in adding new product categories to our portfolio.
Our recent acquisition of iColor Group in China will help us to better serve medium local brands interested in offering premium products with competitive prices.
More recently, we acquired Mia Cosmetic Factory, a filling company specialising in colour cosmetics based in Ripalta Cremasca, near Crema, Italy, The company was already partnering with us for the filling of a variety of products such as foundations, mascaras, brow products, glosses and highlighters, among others. The operation will enable Gotha to develop new projects faster.
Premium Beauty News – What are the next steps?
Paolo Valsecchi – We are looking for new opportunities, in particular in North America. Also, we want to add more categories to our portfolio in Italy. Eyes and lips would be interesting areas of growth for us!
On September 14 and 15, we will present our latest innovations to the North American market at the Equinox Hotel in the Hudson Yards districtin New York.