L’Oréal Groupe has completed its new North America Research & Innovation (R&I) Center located in Clark, New Jersey. Representing a USD 160 million (EUR 150 million) investment, the nearly 250,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art scientific research center is L’Oréal’s largest outside of France. The North America R&I Center broke ground in 2022 and began welcoming employees in mid-2023. The center is now fully operational.
Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of the L’Oréal Groupe, Barbara Lavernos, Deputy CEO of L’Oréal Groupe, in charge of Research, Innovation, and Technology, David Greenberg, CEO of L’Oréal USA and President, North America Zone, and Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey, Tahesha L. Way attended the ribbon-cutting event on Thursday, February 27.
“The U.S. plays a defining role in shaping the future of beauty. With its diverse and demanding consumers and world-leading innovation ecosystem, it is the ideal environment to drive our vision forward. This Center embodies L’Oréal’s uniquely end-to-end innovation model, from upstream Advanced Research on new breakthrough ingredients to the downstream development of formulas ready for scale-up to deliver high-performance, safe, and responsible beauty solutions,” said Barbara Lavernos, Deputy CEO of L’Oréal Groupe, in charge of Research, Innovation, and Technology.
As part of L’Oréal’s global R&I ecosystem, the Center complements R&I hubs in France, Brazil, South Africa, India, China, and Japan and represents a significant, long-term investment in the U.S. and local market economy and workforce. The R&I Center employs more than 600 scientists, engineers, and researchers working across product innovation, development and testing to develop relevant, high-quality and safe beauty products.
The Center actively partners with leading academics, biotech companies, and startups in the United States.
Notable features include a 26,000-square-foot modular laboratory, a consumer center for product testing and co-creation (accommodating up to 400 consumers daily), and an on-site mini factory to scale final formulations before full-scale production. The center also has 10,000 solar panels, which meet 70% of the facility’s energy needs, an eco-retention pond for stormwater management, and employee-led gardening and composting initiatives that create a green workspace.
