
J. Walter Thompson wins Unilever Lux account
J.Walter Thompson (JWT) advertising agency has won the global, digital and content Unilever Lux account after a competitive pitch. The result cements a long running relationship with the pair, with JWT first handling the Lux account in 1925. The account will run out...

We’ll double revenue by March: Sanghvi gears up for multiple brand launches
Sanghvi Brands is planning to double its revenue from Rs40 crore to Rs80 crore by March next year, according to a report published by Live Mint. The owner of MyGlamm is hoping to add four new brands to its portfolio of international wellness marques, which includes...

Unilever China scoops Sustainable Business Award
Unilever China was named the winner of the Sustainable Business Award for the second time at the recent British Business Awards, according to a report published by Yahoo Finance. Inaugurated in 2008, the British Business Awards are hosted by the British Chamber of...

Sisley appoints new Travel Retail Director for Asia Pacific
Sisley has announced the appointment of a new Travel Retail Director for the Asia Pacific region, according to a report published by The Moodie Report. Sue Lewis will succeed Benoit Wagner. “I would like to thank Benoit personally and on behalf of Sisley, for his more...

G and M Australian Cosmetics challenges Woolworths over ‘copycat’ foreign brands
G and M Australian Cosmetics revealed that it was forced to take legal action over a number of imported cosmetics products being sold by supermarket chain Woolworths, according to a report published by ABC News Australia. Woolworths ended its 20-year-old relationship...

Luxury brands prove lucrative for online Indian marketplaces
Online beauty portals in India are increasing their focus on prestige products in a bid to expand their marketplaces and boost sales. Beauty e-tailer Nykaa is said to be bringing on the full Estee Lauder Companies (ELC) range, from Tom Ford to Bobbi Brown, totally...

LG Household & Health Care expands portfolio with dermo-cosmetic brand Dr. Belmeur
Korean company LG Household & Health Care is set to launch dermo-cosmetic brand Dr. Belmeur under its Face Shop subsidiary in order to capitalize on the growing trend for dermo-cosmetics. It will be the first dermo-cosmetics brand for Face Shop, with the new range...

Tonymoly to embark on strategic expansion in US via Ulta and Sephora
Having experienced booming sales in its overseas markets this year, K-beauty brand Tonymoly is set to speed up its expansion in the US, according to a report published by The Korea Times. Tonymoly’s combined overseas sales for the first nine months of this year have...

Tax breaks will hurt local SMEs: Thai Cosmetics Manufacturers Association protests import tax waiver
The Thai Cosmetics Manufacturers Association (TCMA) has called upon Thailand’s finance ministry to back-peddle on its plan to waive import tax on cosmetics for the first two months of 2017, according to a report published by The Bangkok Post. The tax waiver...

Indian Dabur to acquire personal care arm of South African CTL Group for Rs10 crore
Indian FMCG manufacturer Dabur has announced the planned acquisition of South-African based CTL Group’s personal and hair care businesses for Rs10 crore (US$1.5 million), according to a report published by Money Control. The acquisition will further consolidate...

Ayesha Omar named Maybelline New York’s Pakistan celebrity spokesperson
Actress Ayesha Omar has been named as the Pakistan celebrity Spokesperson for Maybelline New York. A key public figure in Pakistan for her TV and film work, Omar will feature in the brands 2016/2017 campaigns across the country. L’Oréal Pakistan Consumer Products...

Peta applauds China’s first completely non-animal test
Animal rights group PETA has released a statement applauding China’s first completely non-animal test. The move follows news that a non-animal test method will soon be recognized for safety evaluations of cosmetics, known as the 3T3 Phototoxicity assay. The method has...

Toothpaste recall hits AmorePacific Group Q3 profit
AmorePacific Group Q3 net profit fell 0.4 percent to 151.4 billion won put down to a hit from AmorePacific subsidiary due to its toothpaste recall. The group had to recall its Median toothpaste in October following news that the product contained harmful chemical...

Shiseido to develop childcare centers in joint venture
Cosmetics giant Shiseido is joining forces with nursery operator JP Holdings Inc to set up child care facilities at its corporate sites in a bid to aid a better work life balance for its female employees. The contract is due to be signed in January with Shiseido...

AmorePacific acquires new KRW46.2 billion production and distribution site
AmorePacifc has announced plans to set up a new production and distribution facility in Korea’s Gajang-dong, Osan-si, Gyeonggi-do area, according to a report published by Reuters. The K-beauty giant is in the process of purchasing land from the Korea Land and Housing...

J&J Marketing VP: we’ll double sales in rural India by 2021
Johnson & Johnson Consumer India’s Vice President of Marketing has revealed that the company has ambitious growth plans for the rural Indian market. In an interview with Bloomberg Quint, Ganesh Bangalore said that the baby category is expected to grow at 10 to 12...

Procter & Gamble teams up with Future Group to expand in Indian beauty market
Procter & Gamble is said to be teaming up with Future Group to develop a joint partnership that will see the two companies come together to produce sales forecasting and planning, exclusive product releases and supply-chain initiatives. According to Brand Equity,...

Unilever redesigns Lux hair care range to appeal to sophisticated Chinese consumers
Unilever has ushered in a new look for its Lux hair care range in China in order to appeal to a more sophisticated audience and communicate the brand’s premium positioning, according to a report published by The Drum. The brand charged JDO with the redesign, with a...

Taiwan joins cruelty-free camp as parliament votes to end animal testing by 2019
Taiwan has become the latest country to ban the sale of cosmetics products that have been tested on animals. The bill, which was proposed in April last year, was passed by parliament last week. The legislation will come into force in 2019, amending Taiwan’s Control...

Up, up and away: K-beauty rivals Whoo and Innisfree to hit KRW1 trillion sales milestone
Both LG Household & Health Care’s Whoo and AmorePacific’s Innisfree are expected to reach a significant sales milestone this year, becoming the second and third brands to achieve sales of KRW1 trillion, according to a report published by Pulse News. AmorePacific’s...

Looking up: SaSa tempts tourists back with ‘trendy products’ but could high rents force retailer to go local?
SaSa International has seen an improvement in its retail sales decline in Hong Kong and Macau, with total retail sales down 2 percent for the second quarter of the financial year, according to the Group’s unaudited sales update for 1 July to 30 September 2016 and...

China poised to become world’s largest beauty market this year as consumers choose Estee Lauder over Unilever
China is poised to become the world’s largest beauty market this year, according to a report published by Bloomberg. Data compiled by Morgan Stanley suggests that Chinese consumers are contributing 40 percent of global growth for cosmetics and personal care products,...

Avon Japan seeks to relist in Tokyo as Back in Profit
The Japanese arm of Avon Products is working to relist in Tokyo, according to a report published by Bloomberg. The owner of the Japanese direct sales business, Keystone Partners, hopes to boost profits to give Avon Japan a market value of ¥10 billion, and could offer...

Shiseido to launch 15-minute beauty treatment in Japan
Japanese beauty powerhouse Shiseido is set to launch a 15 minute beauty treatment in some 1700 stores across Japan. The company will follow in the footsteps of many brands offering a mini make-overs, and will use its Benefique brand within the treatment sessions....

Evonik starts build of second Singapore-based methionine complex
Speciality chemical’s company Evonik has started construction on its second methionine complex in Singapore, which will be on a world-scale. Created with an investment of nearly $500 billion, the plant will be capable of producing 150,000 metric tonnes of...

Tonymoly expands investment in China with new manufacturing facility
K Beauty powerhouse Tonymoly has invested 23 billion won in a new manufacturing facility based in Zhejiang Province, China. The build will be through its affiliate Megacos and will span a 59,400 area with the aim for the company to be able to produce 8 million units...

Prime location: Sephora, The Body Shop and Mecca secure flagship sites in Australia’s shopping malls as beauty’s popularity ‘snowballs’
The face of Australia’s shopping malls is changing, according to a report published by The Sydney Morning Herald, as beauty retailers secure ever-more prominent spots usually reserved for fashion brands. In Melbourne’s newly redeveloped Chadstone Shopping Centre,...

L’Occitane launches luxury skin care line based on rare regenerating algae in Malaysia
L’Occitane is set to launch its latest luxury skin care line, based on a rare form of algae capable of continual regeneration, in Malaysia this month, according to a report published by the New Straits Times. The French naturals brand studied the algae, Jania Rubens,...

On the hunt: Maharashtra FDA now hones in on mercury content in Lakme, L’Oréal and Revlon lipsticks
After a high-profile row with L’Oréal over alleged mercury content in its skin lightening products, Maharashtra’s Food and Drugs Authority has moved on to lipsticks, according to a report published by CNBC’s Money Control. The Indian regulatory body is testing some 15...

Unilever voices concern over ‘softened market conditions’ and stiff competition from Patanjali et al in India
There’s rocky roads ahead for Hindustan Unilever, according to a report published by Quartz India. The publication picked up on several references to the Indian market in Unilever’s third-quarter earnings call last week. Among them, was an admittance that ‘market...

Power play: Chinese consumers snap up AmorePacific et al but K-beauty’s heavy reliance on China puts industry at risk
China is the biggest overseas buyer of South Korean beauty products, according to data released by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute. The country accounted for 41.1 percent of K-beauty exports in 2015, a considerable jump on 2013 figures, when exports to...

South Korea to ban microbeads in cosmetics?
South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is hoping to usher in a ban on the use of microbeads in cosmetics, according to a report published by Chemical Watch. If the legislation is passed – in the form of an amendment to the country’s Regulation on the Safety...

L’Oréal Australia announces first female majority in its Executive Committee
The glass ceiling has been well and truly smashed by the women working at L’Oréal Australia as the French beauty giant announced that its Executive Committee has a female majority for the first time. The team is now made up of seven women to four men. “We want to be a...

Revlon appoints Reborn to push digital-first approach in Australia and NZ
Revlon has announced that is has appointed Reborn as lead creative agency for the Australian and New Zealand markets, according to a report published by Bandt. Reborn replaces GPY&R and is tasked with developing Revlon’s digital-first strategy for 2017, working...

I wake up like this: Shiseido launches make-up simulation App for video conferencing
Shiseido has unveiled a new app, TeleBeauty, that will allow employees to apply virtual make-up for videoconferences, according to a report published by Nikkei. The Japanese cosmetics manufacturer’s latest launch uses Microsoft Japan’s Skype for Business and offers...

L’Oréal India appoints new CMO
Shalini Raghavan has been appointed the new Chief Marketing Officer for the Consumer Products Division of L’Oreal India. Raghavan joins the company from Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and has over 15 years’ experience in the beauty industry. Her roles have included...

Lawsuits called against AmorePacific for ‘toxic’ toothpastes
A number of consumers have come together to file a suit against AmorePacific following the recall of a ‘toxic’ toothpaste last month. The suit sees a 315 plaintiffs requesting 1 million won in damages, with the suing law firm Next Law collecting further clients for...

Japanese personal care trio join forces to challenge Kao market share
Japanese personal care giants Shiseido, Unicharm, and Lion have joined forces to take on market leader Kao, which has dominated the personal care industry for the last six years. As part of the merger, Unicharm and Lion will each take a 20 percent stake in wholly...

China reduces consumption tax reduction for luxury cosmetics to boost sales
Chinese consumption tax for luxury cosmetics has been reduced from 30 percent to 15 percent, with it being waived entirely for non-luxury cosmetics. The move, announced by the finance ministry, has been initiated in order to help the company stimulate growth and...

India will be key: Oriflame projects market will reach its top two by 2021
Oriflame is predicting that the Indian market will be ranked among its top two globally by 2021, according to a report published by The Economic Times. The Swedish direct sales company is forecasting sales of Rs1,500 crore by 2020, with the skin care and wellness...

Dream a dream: Etude House unveils new brand identity in bid to become global number one
Etude House has unveiled a new brand identity that it hopes will help it to achieve its goal of becoming the world’s top youth make-up brand, according to a report published by Korea JoongAng Daily. The K-beauty brand ditched it ‘Princess Fantasy’ brand vision in...

P&G enters ‘exploratory relationship’ with New Zealand-based Honeylab
Procter & Gamble has entered into an ‘exploratory relationship’ with New Zealand-based Honeylab, according to a report published in Stuff. Honeylab’s signature product line is Honevo, which is based on medical-grade kanuka honey and includes various medical and...

The Face Shop Thailand to open Laos store
The Thai franchisee of K-beauty brand The Face Shop is set to open its first store in Laos this year, according to a report published by The Nation. The Thai arm will team up with a partner in Laos in a joint venture that will see the South Korean beauty retailer...

AmorePacific pulls 11 toothpastes from the shelf over MIT controversy
AmorePacific has been ordered to stage a recall of some 11 different toothpastes after the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety found them to contain ‘a very small amount’ of chloro-methylisothiazolinone (CMIT) and methylisothiazolinone (MIT). “We apologize...

We need to connect with consumers: P&G speaks out in defence of print
In this era of digital, Procter & Gamble is paddling against the tide by claiming that print ads are crucial to its mission to recruit new customers. In an interview with Ad News, the US FMCG giant claimed, “Our marketing needs to do more than drive awareness. We...

There’s no mercury in our products: L’Oréal India refutes Maharashtra FDA findings
L’Oréal India has rejected claims made by the Maharashtra Food & Drug Administration that several of its skin lightening products contain mercury, according to reports published by The Economic Times and Indian Express. The French beauty giant is contesting the...

Can Kao, Lion and T.Hasegawa boost profits with new olfactory studies?
Japanese flavors and fragrances producers are seeking the holy grail of fragrance innovation in a bid to revive the flagging fragrance industry, according to a report published by Nikkei. Several companies are looking to new research conducted on olfactory receptors...

Mary Kay showcases commitment to China with new Administrative Management Center
Direct sales giant Mary Kay has showcased its long-term commitment to development in the Chinese market thanks to the opening of the new Administrative Management Center in Shanghai. Unveiled earlier this month, the centre cost 800 million yuan to build and has 13...

Unilever eyes Pakistan for further development
Dutch personal care giant is said to be looking to Pakistan to further investments. According to Daily Pakistan, the development was revealed during a meeting with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, as told by the Netherlands Ambassador. Pakistan is said to...

Shiseido Hong Kong hosts 4D 5-sense technology exhibition
Shiseido Hong Kong has hosted a 4D 5-sense technology exhibition that led visitors through a sensory technology journey to encourage people to share their ‘precious beliefs’ in a bid to better target ‘millennials’. The exhibition, held at Harbour City, had a 4D...
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