INNOVATIVE BEAUTY GROUP: Much More Than Full Service!
2023/03/06
LUXE PACK New York 20th Anniversary Pioneers
We are thrilled to be showcasing a very exclusive group of exhibitors who have been part of the 20-year LUXE PACK New York lineage. We are honored to have them continue to be part of the invaluable industry legacy that solidifies them as long running industry packaging players. We would like to introduce them to you individually and therefore welcome you to hone on the special editorial content developed to showcase their own industry legacy and how they plan to continue to contribute to the industry’s next 20.
Articles written by Jean-Yves Bourgeois, Co-founder, LUXE PACK & Founder of Formes de Luxe Magazine
Three and a half years ago, Xavier Leclerc de Hauteclocque took over the management of the Beauty Solutions division of the Albéa Group. Now known as the Innovative Beauty Group, it has two global brands: Orchard Custom Beauty, which positions itself as an “extension of the customer’s team” to develop complete ranges of packaging & formulae, accessories, and promotional offers, and Fasten Packaging, which develops packaging ranges based on a design-to-cost approach intelligently incorporating both plastic, glass, and metal. In three and a half years, IBG’s turnover has increased from $50 million to $210 million, half of which achieved in Europe and half in the USA, with a current workforce of over 230 employees in three continents (Asia, Europe and the USA).
Question: What is your positioning?
Xavier Leclerc de Hauteclocque: This has become our slogan: Working with IBG helps achieve excellence through the combination of creativity, innovation, and the agile management of complex projects.’ Or, in other words, “We combine innovation, creativity, and agility with our technical expertise to enable the customer to move faster and reduce project development costs.” This means that we develop concepts from start to finish by adapting (which is very important!) to our customer’s organization. We manage everything from designing the brand, product, and packaging, and development to promotion and delivery.
Question: Who are your customers?
Xavier Leclerc de Hauteclocque: Our approach is unique as we partner with our customers as an extension of their own team. We bring their vision to life, always within a budget, but, generally, far beyond their expectations. We therefore have a broad spectrum of customers that include supermarkets, retailers, formulators, brands, designers/designers, fillers, etc.Today, our solutions are obviously provided in a sustainable framework including formulae, accessories, packaging, and materials up to concept and integrating the entire value chain. For example, with Fasten Packaging’s design-to-cost approach, we provide forward-thinking innovations to our customers who take into account the reduction of their environmental impact. Also noteworthy is our Raise The Bar program, through which we support some of our strategic suppliers in cooperation with the Ecovadis assessment. Finally, we have invested in the training of all our teams to develop their CSR expertise in packaging and formulae.
Question: Any examples?
Xavier Leclerc de Hauteclocque: I can mention a series of sustainable and refillable cream jars that took twelve months to develop, which led us to use a single recyclable material (recycled polypropylene) for a 70% reduction in materials compared to a standard jar. Not forgetting the CO2 reduction in transport thanks to the lightweight and stackable design.
Question: Is demand still as high?
Xavier Leclerc de Hauteclocque: Yes! Our current growth is over 30% and we have a pipeline full of projects, particularly in new segments, since we are in markets, such as hair care products and room fragrances. We are currently recruiting about thirty people. About thirty of our employees work on design and around sixty are in charge of product development. The rest of the teams are mainly composed of project managers and the supply chain. This is logical since our approach is based on four areas: precise segmentation of our customers’ needs in parallel with analysis of trends and social media; an ecosystem of partners to improve our quality and corporate social responsibility (CSR) expertise; saving the time of our customers by integrating design-to-cost upstream of the project; and finally, support our customers’ creative thinking with joint creative workshops where we develop projects reflecting their brand values.
