Premium Beauty News - Can you give us some figures on your Group: How many people do you employ today, what is the turnover of the company and the main investments this year and next year in your plants, in Germany and abroad?
Christina Zech - We are 7,500 worldwide, nearly 800 of them work for Faber-Castell Cosmetics. For the Faber-Castell Group as a whole, the fiscal year 2015/16 (year ending 31st March 2016) was the best year in the company’s history with group sales of EUR 631 million (+10% year-on-year). And for the Faber-Castell Cosmetics division it was a record year as we accounted for more than 10% of Faber-Castell AG’s total business and we ended the year with double-digit sales growth and a good profit.
At the moment one of our (main) focuses is to enlarge the capacity of wood cased pencils at our facility in Sao Carlos, Brazil. Since July 2013 this specially designed, modern production site offers vertical integration under one roof and is in particular beneficial for our international key accounts. And of course, a proven, standardized quality assurance system guarantees the strict compliance with all international standards.
Premium Beauty News - What is today your strategy in terms of product development?
Christina Zech - Step by step we are adjusting our textures to equally produce them on all our global production sites thus providing a high flexibility for us and our customers.
Premium Beauty News - What are the new products?
Christina Zech - At Make-Up in NewYork we presented smart solutions to create a fresh, dewy skin with a gorgeous lit-from-within-glow and stunning colours that last the whole day. And not to forget 3 new packagings, where we are especially excited about our airtight Slim Plastic Pencil. This in-house developed and produced packaging can be easily customized from “top to toe” in any colour. Our revolution in pencil shape allows a new generation of formulas. At New York we presented it with the gel-like MAGNETIC texture which glides on like a dream and the feed-back in New York was amazing.
Premium Beauty News - Concerning your future plans, what are the next steps?
Christina Zech - On the whole, we strive to increase our global reach and to be closer to our customers. Furthermore, we are working on an extension of our packaging portfolio with innovative formulations which have to be especially developed for each format and as you know, this is one of our key competences. Our customers can be sure to get a “one-stop shop”: High quality products, convenience and safety where we stand behind with our reputation.
