Premium Beauty News - Arcade already owns production sites in North America, Brazil and China. The acquisition of Carestia allows you to get hold of the industrial tool you were looking for in Europe?
Philippe Ughetto - A major trend in the market is the globalization of brands. We have anticipated this for several years already and we are supporting our customers by exporting our expertise, as close as possible to the markets where they invest and grow, especially in Latin America and Asia.
Thus, in addition to North America, our area of origin, we have production sites in Brazil and China. We are present in Brazil since 1999, and run locally two production lines dedicated to samples for the perfume, skincare and make-up sectors. We have made significant investments in 2012 to equip this industrial tool with all the technology we usually offer our clients. As for China, we have operations on this market since 2011 with a production site in Wujiang in the Jiangsu Province, dedicated to skincare and make-up.
The acquisition of Carestia is also part of this approach, but not only. What we are seeking first, is to develop a product portfolio very complementary to ours and with a true international potential.
Premium Beauty News - You are still planning to use Carestia’s production tool?
Philippe Ughetto - Yes, we are currently studying the implementation of the industrial synergies. This represents advantages in terms of logistics and customer proximity. But the acquisition of Carestia does not limit itself to the purchase of an industrial plant in France, the land of perfumes.
For us, Carestia also holds a remarkable know-how with a corporate philosophy very close to ours: high quality products for upscale markets and customers looking for exceptional products. Carestia has a unique expertise in the manufacture of fragrance strips, blotter cards and even in the printing of small formats. The company also has an extensive know-how for all specific and highly specialized hand-made projects.
Carestia’s range of products is very complementary to the one of Arcade and there are many synergies to set up. Carestia generates today most of its turnover in France and Europe. We are going to use our commercial force for their product portfolio and offer it to our international clients, particularly in North America.
For the time being we are in an integration phase. The project should be fully deployed in the course of 2014.
