Premium Beauty News - It is not just about a partnership for the development of an umpteenth Airless system?
Sung Hwan Cho - Of course not! We decided to join our forces to propose a new Airless system, representing the next level of the category. Pure Drop’s value proposition is to be “the most customizable airless system on the market, with best-in-class functional performances”. Each partner brings the best of their respective expertise to this common programme: Pure Drop inherited its performances from Samhwa Plastic and its beauty from Pochet.
Premium Beauty News - Why Pure Drop?
Tristan Farabet - Pure Drop emerged from the realization that there is a continuous high demand for Airless packs, thanks to the benefits that this packaging technology offers in terms of formula protection, ability to dispense a wide range of viscosity, ergonomics and to its high-tech image that enhances the perceived value of advanced skincare formulae.
Yet, the airless packaging is paradoxically under-represented in the Prestige segment (9% in volume), because of two significant limitations:
1. Design limitations, due to the fact that the current offering is dominated by cylindrical standards geared towards mass and masstige segments. Indeed some elaborate, dressed-up airless packs do exist, but their development is long and tedious and they generally come with complex logistics (association of several suppliers, delivery of several sub-assemblies with a very specific assembly process…).
2. Functional limitations, due to the fact that most current airless evolved by making compromises on functional performances. As a consequence only few current systems can pretend being ‘true’ airless packs, and most brands have to derogate from their own specifications if they want to be able to offer a so-called ‘airless’ solution. Here also high performance packs do exist, but they are generally limited in design and decoration options and not suited for the sophisticated brand image of the Luxury cosmetics segment.
Pure Drop emerged from the will to solve simultaneously both these limitations, hence offering a system with unlimited design freedom, associated with best-in-class performances.
Premium Beauty News - Why a Samhwa-Pochet association?
Tristan Farabet - The Pochet Group is a recognized leader in luxury beauty packaging, with a main historical focus on the Fragrance category. We set ourselves with the goal to grow in the skincare and make-up segments, and have chosen to do so through innovation in products, processes and services.
The Airless category was an obvious choice for supporting a strategic growth in both skincare and make-up, and we decided to develop a high-end airless, both in terms of design options and technical performances aimed at luxury and masstige brands with an appetite for high performance.
Our group is totally legitimate in the area of highly designed and decorated packs, associating the widest range of materials and finishing technologies in the industry, and to reach the high level of technical performance that was targeted, it chose to look for an association with an Airless expert.
We conducted an analysis of the dispensing market actors and quickly concluded that the best airless technology was to be found in South Korea. We then established contacts with most major airless suppliers in South Korea… and were impressed by Samhwa’s technological excellence and the cultural affinities between our two family businesses!
Sung Hwan Cho - Samhwa, founded in 1977, is the 2nd largest cosmetic packaging supplier in South Korea and the fastest growing one. We are an airless pioneer, who developed the first airless pump in Korea in 1994 and patented the first Pure Flow pump in history in 2001. We are a recognized leader of this category with innovative, high performance products in skincare and make-up categories.
On our side we were also engaged in a strategic rethinking of the future development of our company, with a dynamic strategy of expanding internationally and into the Luxury segment. To achieve this goal we were contemplating an association with a Western company that could accelerate our reach of the Global market and complement our own capabilities for decorative parts.
It became soon obvious that the two companies had a lot in common, including their strong values rooted on their family owned businesses. A mutual trust emerged from the discussions and common work over two years, who leads today to the creation of a 50/50 joint venture focused, for now, on Pure Drop, but with an open view that the partnership could evolve further and cover more product categories.
