Clariant to open Global Competence Center Haircare in São Paulo, Brazil

Muttenz, October 4, 2016 – Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, today announces that its first-ever Global Competence Center Haircare will be located in São Paulo, Brazil. The center is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2017 and puts the company’s hair care experts at the heart of the fastest growing hair care market globally and closer to the large customers in the region. With this investment, Clariant continues its strategic focus on innovation through R&D and its aim of continuing to develop highly innovative products and solutions with a strong focus on customer needs. It will be part of Clariant’s Business Unit Industrial & Consumer Specialties (ICS) and is to be located in the Santo Amaro region of São Paulo.

Brazil was chosen as the location for the center as this market currently represents 20% of the global growth in the Hair Care segment. The country stands outs for its widespread adoption of hair treatments, with women on average having eight hair care products in daily use. As a result of this, Brazil also hosts some of the leading research institutes in hair care. Finally, São Paulo, with its rich history of immigration, provides a broad mix of hair types and is thus the perfect location to conduct research on how to optimize hair care solutions which are fit for consumers worldwide.

The Global Competence Center Haircare will house a team of Clariant hair care professionals, application and formulation labs, and meeting space. It will provide the in-house capabilities and cutting-edge technical expertise for close co-operation with external experts and a network of local and global partners, universities and institutes. The Center will act as a hub for leading global innovation projects that can help formulators address both their own product development needs and the changing hair care trends of consumers.

Christian Vang, Head of Business Unit Industrial and Consumer Specialties (ICS), comments: “Latin America is a very important region for Clariant as a whole and especially for us in ICS. The Global Competence Center Haircare will allow us to really strengthen our presence in the global hair care community and to improve our in-depth understanding of the hair care market and trends. We look forward to further extending our network as such connections are key to continuously improve our hair care innovation to meet the trends and needs of customers and consumers both here and around the world.”