Eurofragrance steps up Indian expansion
Barcelona-based fragrance experts Eurofragance is the latest beauty company to put a focus on the promising India beauty market.
The Spanish scent company has opened a creative centre in Mumbai, India, which it said will leave it “better equipped to meet customer’s needs.”
CEO Laurent Mercier said this was a significant move for Eurofragrance and stated that the business recognised: “the tremendous opportunity presented by India’s thriving market.”
Mercier shared that Eurofragrance’s operations in India began in 2020 and since then the company has experienced “exponential growth with a notable post-pandemic acceleration.”
India fragrance market: a new ‘creative centre’
The new creative centre joins existing ones in Singapore, Dubai, Mexico, and Spain, which house a team of perfumers, evaluators and lab scientists. Each centre specialises in a top-market category of products, to offer tailored products for its customers’ projects.
The India site will work closely with its counterpart in Dubai, to use its expertise in Gulf fragrances. It also plans to put equal emphasis on the Home and Personal Care categories alongside Fine Fragrance.
General manager of the Indian market Mayur Kapse said that this new opening “not only enhances our ability to deliver high-quality fragrances, but also reduces even further turnaround times for projects that will benefit our customers.”
Eurofragrance said its overall strategy is “based around its proximity to markets, so it can precisely meet the olfactory preferences of local consumers.”
India has had a long-held love affair with scent and is currently experiencing middle-class expansion, with more consumers enjoying higher purchasing power.
Chief fragrance development and innovation officer, Dolors Costa, said that opening this new centre in India will allow Eurofragrance to “seamlessly cater to customer needs, dive deep into Indian perfumery culture, and share our innovation expertise and premium ingredients with this market.”
Strong sales results for 2023
On top of this Indian market expansion, Eurofragrance has noted success in its other markets.
In its full year financial results report for 2023, the company shared that it had reached sales of €146m in 2023 – up by 20% on 2022 on a like for like basis.
It saw growth in all categories – fine fragrance, personal care, air care and home care – and in all regions, with the strongest growth in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and European markets.
While speaking about the financial results, CEO Mercier also noted the company’s acquisition of PT Euronindo Fragrance in Indonesia in late 2022 – sharing that the business aimed to reinforce its presence in the APAC region, but had divested itself from the US market.
Looking to the future, Mercier also said that Eurofragrance planned to “keep on strengthening alliances with strategic AI partners to support processes, systems, fragrance-related technologies and new ways of working.”
The company has two major AI initiatives to innovate in fragrance development. Last year it announced a collaboration with the French green-bio-deep-tech company Alphanosos to uncover new exclusive technologies to address malodours. The second project is set to be announced later this year.
The business also shared that it has also just been awarded the EcoVadis’ Platinum medal – the highest business sustainability rating.
