Premium Beauty News - Against all expectations, it appears finally that 2009 was a decent year for your Group!

Thomas Jonas - Quite true! And that applies to all areas under my responsibility, namely pumps, trigger sprayers and cardboard processing. The second part of the year was good with a very strong last quarter.

Needless to say that we also benefited from very strong demand for dispensing systems of antiseptic products against influenza. Even though the potential for spread is currently very low, we really have the feeling that a new consumption pattern has been set and that consumers have started using these products routinely, particularly in the United States. This is an extremely competitive and capitalistic segment in which we have been investing for many years, and we now have a strong position.

In addition, perfume pumps and even more so, cosmetics pumps finally performed well throughout the year 2009.

I would also like to add that, in this perfumery segment, the end of 2009 also marks a milestone as our group in the United States was legally considered as the inventors of the transparent dip tube.

To note also the marketing of our new mini-trigger sprayers.

Premium Beauty News - Airless seems more than ever to be on a roll! Don’t you think?

Thomas Jonas - Obviously! This technology is fully adapted to new consumer demand and to the development of greener and more protective cosmetic products.

As I already had the opportunity to tell you here, a few months ago, we are still increasing our research effort in this field and we are, commercially speaking, doing very well with our system working perfectly.

You know that concerning this area, we have decided to dispatch our production tool in key areas of the world where we are already operating industrially, i.e. North America, Spain and China.

We will continue to innovate in airless in 2010.

Premium Beauty News - You just mentioned your industrial presence at the four corners of the globe. China is obviously at the heart of this strategy!

Thomas Jonas - Yes, of course! And contrary to received ideas, we have out there, in Wuxi near Shanghai what is probably the most modern production unit in the world. The site, incidentally, looks more like a genuine "industrial campus "than a plant, strictly speaking.

We are centralizing over there all our know-how in the field of pumps, trigger sprayers, airless and cardboard processing. Above all, everything is ultra-automated! A presence on this continent that we anticipated to cope with what is known to be a permanently booming market.