Ashland Specialty Ingredients is strengthening its presence in India and Southeast Asia with the opening in Mumbai of a new technical centre dedicated personal and home care products.

The facility is locate at Jaswanti Landmark, in the heart of Mumbai and will focus on research and development with the aim to bring personal and home care innovations to market and provide technical support to the company’s customers. The Mumbai technical team will provide preservative efficacy studies and general formulation support.

Mr. John E Panichella, Senior Vice President and Group Operating Officer, and President, Ashland Specialty Ingredients

According to Ashland, the need for formulating expertise is booming in India where expenditures in personal care products grow at a rate of approximately 15-percent year-over-year.

Looking at the number of requests for assistance from companies in India over the past several years, it is obvious there are a number of advantages, for both Ashland and our customers, with a local technical team in Mumbai,” said John E. Panichella, group operating officer and president, Ashland Specialty Ingredients, who presided over the opening ceremony.

Ashland’s Mumbai facility has dedicated formulation laboratories to hair, skin, oral and home care; controlled environment laboratories for measurement science to support claims substantiation; a microbiology laboratory for preservative optimization and micro challenge test; consumer science laboratories including a hair salon; a laboratory designed for customer collaborations; and a fully equipped training room.

The centre will also serve as headquarters for key account managers in India and as a base of operations for distributor training and technical seminars.

With this opening, Ashland expands its global network of R&D and technical support facilities dedicated to personal and home care products, which already includes centres of excellence in the United States, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and China, and technical laboratories in Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.