Serge Dantas, Deputy Managing Director, France Lab

It has no plant, but a marketing and design creation workshop as well as a research and development laboratory near Paris, and customers all around the world: founded in 2007, perfume and cosmetics creation agency France Lab made itself known for its capacity for innovation and product quality. Among the agency’s customers can be found distributors seeking a comprehensive service to develop their private labels, brands aspiring to diversification, but also cosmetics manufacturers looking for innovative products, an outside perspective, and insight, or young designers searching for expertise and advice.

Our originality is based on the fact that we gather both creative (marketing/design) and technical (R&D/packaging engineering/purchase-development/regulations) teams and skills under the same roof, which makes it possible to offer our customers innovative services (product concepts and ideas from the marketing, technology, or packaging perspectives). We can meet all our customers’ needs. We design brands and products, and we manage projects from the brand’s identity and DNA to formulations and retail communication and image, including design and packaging development. We can even advise customers on distribution and guide them through the marketing phase,” explains Serge Dantas, Deputy Managing Director.

More than a creation studio or a mere formulation laboratory, France Lab endeavours to provide real turnkey solutions including brand strategy, creation, development, and manufacturing, via different industrial partners. “We view ourselves as true beauty architects. We usually work on long-term projects over several months, or sometimes even years, because we need time to design and successfully establish a brand on such a competitive market as that of perfumes and cosmetics,” Serge Dantas underlines.

Accelerated international development

Today, the company counts about twenty employees, and it entered into an international development phase one year and a half ago, which materialized with the establishment of a three-employee subsidiary in New York. It also has a representative office in Hong Kong, and is considering founding a subsidiary in China. “Our portfolio of Asian customers needs France Lab’s expertise in the development and formulation of innovative, high-end skincare products. As an example, we have just developed a private label range of about twenty formulas for a high-profile Chinese operator in the hotel business sector.

France Lab’s acquisition by the Marie Claire Group should help the agency provide its customers with the extensive know-how and visibility offered by its new parent company, but it should also stimulate its international development, using the luxury and beauty advertisers portfolio managed by the group. Likewise, France Lab does not exclude the possibility of external growth either, as it would help it position itself faster on the local level. As for the Marie Claire Group, they intend to expand their own diversification strategy by strengthening the service offer available to brands via its Beauty Factory, which used to be focused on market research.