Stefano Castelletti, General director, Faber-Castell Cosmetics

Premium Beauty News - After a harsh year 2009, what about the economic situation in 2010?

Stefano Castelletti - For the time being we have every reason of being satisfied with the current pace. Demand is sustained. As for the year 2009, we have nothing to complain about. We will have reached roughly the same figures as those recorded in 2008. Certainly, throughout the past year, we had to adapt to a particularly tense market in terms of volumes and prices. Specially on prices incidentally! We have continually improved, over this period, the performances of our production equipment to make them more flexible and more competitive. At the same time, we have continued to invest in innovation which remains one of our main keys to keep on progressing in our market.

Some of the highlights of this innovative approach, the launch of pencils complying perfectly with new environmental requirements (Ecocert certified).

Premium Beauty News - The origin, not to say the very soul of Faber Castell, still remains the wooden pencil! What about this product?

Stefano Castelletti - The wooden pencil still accounts for more than 50% of our business. Obviously, you haven’t heard the last of wooden pencil. We will prove it this year by marketing a variety of new pencils innovating in textures implemented (new formulas) but also decoration. Within the next 5 years we will also see the appearance of superior formulae suited for plastic cased products as well as liquid products which will of course challenge the share of wooden pencils.

Premium Beauty News - All these novelties will be the strong points of your presence this year at both, Cosmoprof Bologna and MakeUp in Paris?

Stefano Castelletti - At the moment nobody exactly knows how consumer behavior will shift or change in times after the recession. Certainly individuality is on the rise which means an exciting time with a lot of creativity and profiling also in design. Under the slogan "Express Yourself" we are going to present our latest innovations in packaging and fomula, three different concepts that add glamour and uniqueness to cosmetic pencils:

 C’EST CHIC: Sophisticated products with funky surface design – visible and touchable.
 HOT STUFF: Vivid make-up colours and formulae with ultimate staying power.
 HIGH ENERGY: A careful selection of ingredients and their high concentration spell magic to make-up.

Premium Beauty News - Your industrial presence is concentrated in Europe with the German factory and South America with a plant in Brazil. What about Asia?

Stefano Castelletti - We successfully produce stationary products in China and we have established factories in Indonesia and Malaysia. In our opinion the Asian cosmetics market is in process of an important evolution that we are observing. The Latin American market has stepped beyond evolution and have experienced strong growth recently.

Premium Beauty News - There is much talk about full-service, but in fact it’s a daily practice for you!

Stefano Castelletti - There are a lot of different interpretations of full service due to the open supply chain for cosmetic products. At Faber-Castell we traditionally manage vertical integration in manufacturing. It’s our business, our vocation.