Albéa recommits to North American beauty market

By Deanna Utroske

- Last updated on GMT

© Getty Images \ (Igor Kutyaev)
© Getty Images \ (Igor Kutyaev)
In a recent online presentation to international trade media, the cosmetics and personal care packaging company outlined new investments, operational strategies, and market trend alignment initiatives meant to serve beauty makers in Canada, the US, and Mexico through and beyond the COVID recovery.

Albéa is a packaging manufacture. The company specializes in tubes, which account for 50% of the company’s sales. In 2020, overall company sales amounted to $1.1bn. Albéa also makes cosmetics and fragrance packaging, which accounts for about 40% of the business. And the remaining 10% is mostly mass-market private label product dev, manufacturing, and filling, handled by Orchard Custom Beauty, the turn-key division of the company.

The company is global but has a notable presence in North America with Orchard Custom Beauty located in Toronto, Ontario; manufacturing in Reynosa, Queretaro, and Matamoros, Mexico as well as in Washington, New Jersey, and Shelbyville, Tennessee; and there are Albéa offices here in New York City too. (Matamoros is immediately across the US-Mexico border from Brownsville, Texas.)

Investing and adapting operations for the North American beauty and personal care market

Albéa is intentionally growing and adapting its business in this region and, according to data shared during the recent presentation to the press, invested some $40m in its US facilities since the start of 2020.

In Matamoros, where mascara is the made and packaged, the company has invested in improved metalization technologies. And, explains Carlos Rubio, General Manager of that plant, the team there is “extending our reach to serve emerging and indie brands. They require a manufacturing model that is quite different from what we have in the plant. So, one of the things we are doing is modifying our models to adapt to that market.”

Market trends guide innovation at Albéa

In 2020, Albéa pivoted to keep its facilities open, its people safe, and serve the new needs of personal care consumers across the Americas region. The company produced some 1.7bn tubes last year, many of which were made to package hand sanitizer gel products.

Environmental sustainability

And like all beauty makers and suppliers now, Albéa is working to meet customer and end-consumer expectations regarding environmental sustainability. To that end, 85% of Albéa manufacturing equipment used to produce extruded tubes is able to do so with up to 40% PCR plastics. And, 100% of the systems in place for producing laminate tubes works with the company’s patented Greenleaf technology, a laminate material certified by the Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR).

Intimate wellness

The company is growing in the beauty and intimate wellness space since making a concerted effort to showcase products in this emerging category at last year’s Makeup In LA event.

Local sourcing and production

Cécile Tuil, Vice President of Communications at Albéa, says that local sourcing and supply has taken on a new importance in the post-pandemic beauty economy.

“We believe,”​ she says “that local supply will be seen as providing real value and purpose and that it will be the new norm….This includes local sourcing and manufacturing and filling and sale.”

“It means enabling circularity through local reuse and recycling systems. It means carbon-neutral plants. It means digital connections with customer plants nearby. And above all,”​ says Tuil, “it means local jobs, solidarity, and striving communities.”

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