Premium Beauty News - What is the outcome of the year 2008 so far?

Claudio Contini - More or less the same as 2007. However, it is important to consider the impact of foreign currency rates, because our sales in the dollar zone are under evaluated. Should the US dollar be our reference to calculate our turnover, we would see a dramatic increase, as per the previous years. I must also add that this year was a very good one for our sales of aerosol filling machines.

Premium Beauty News - What is your vision of the next six months?

Claudio Contini - We expect weaker sales for the next six months, it’s no surprise. The reasons are the downturn of retail sales, the world financial crisis, and the slowdown of extra-European markets, combined with the recession in Europe. There are signs already that are not very positive about future orders.

Premium Beauty News - Nevertheless, you are still making important investments?

Claudio Contini - As per the group’s tradition, we carry on important investments in our various facilities, with the aim to upgrade their automation level, and also the quality and flexibility of the production. Furthermore, we recently made a huge investment in India, by taking over the biggest producer of perfumery pumps in the country. Now we’re working at improving the equipment of our Indian production units in order to bring them at a similar level than in Europe. We plan to supply, from India, pumps designed for the mass-market, with the same quality and same service than in Europe, but with the advantage of a best-cost country sourcing. Indeed the “right price” remains the first concern for the type of market we’re serving. That’s the main reason for our investment in India.

Premium Beauty News - What about innovation? What is your strategy in this field?

Claudio Contini - It’s hard to talk about ground-breaking innovation for the kind of products we are working with. We can consider innovation as per the shapes or the colours, but actually the market is reluctant to all functional innovations that do not help to decrease prices. Existing products already cover consumers’ needs, so there is hardly any real need for new functionalities. Actually, price remains the most important factor.

Premium Beauty News - Environment and sustainable development are the new buzzwords in the industry. How do you address these challenges?

Claudio Contini - Our products rely on processed materials such as plastic, an oil derivative, and steel. These materials are becoming less abundant and more expensive. Furthermore, there are increasing concerns linked to solid wastes, with more and more consumers becoming aware of the necessity to reduce packaging volumes. Nevertheless, we are convinced that in order to address our customers’ need we must carry on with containers and pumps. In such a context, the only winners will be those producers being able to reduce material inputs to the minimum required, while giving access to simple and low cost recycling schemes.

All our facilities are built so as they do not impact the surrounding environment: no pollutant emissions of chemical products. All our products use FDA approved materials, and are harmless to consumers’ health.

Premium Beauty News - What about counterfeiting? Are you impacted by the phenomenon and how do you fight it?

Claudio Contini - As far as we are concerned, the problem is limited to Chinese goods. But copycat producers have failed to approach our quality and reliability standards. Eventually, the outcome of the latest years, is that Chinese producers have not been able to enter our main markets.

Premium Beauty News - There is a strong trend to reduce pumps’ size. They are always smaller and smaller, but what’s the limit?

Claudio Contini - There are physical limits, of course, that are linked to the minimum dose size and that cannot be overstepped. Furthermore, size reduction necessarily induces quality loss. That’s not an option acceptable to Coster, as our goal is to supply our customers with the best quality available.