Three announce care centres

Three major players in speciality chemicals have opened or announced plans for technology centres focused on consumer or personal care in the past month. Clariant and Brenntag will both have new ones located on the US East Coast, while Croda has opened two separate, focused locations in France and Singapore.

Clariant’s 1,333 m2 consumer care innovation centre (CCIC) will open in mid-2019 at New Providence, New Jersey, giving it access to personal and home care and healthcare markets in the Greater New York region. It will incorporate a demonstration room, an application and claims laboratory, a testing centre where lab results can be correlated with actual consumer perceivable testing and a ‘collaboration space’ for creative thinking.

“By intensifying cooperation, we can deliver products with more substantiated claims on customer formulations that provide the basis for a successful and mutually beneficial relationship”, said CEO Ernesto Occhiello. The company added that this will help it “to build our expertise and provide more differentiated product offering with substantiated solutions”.

Brenntag North America, meanwhile, has officially opened its newly expanded personal care application and development centre in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This will offer application assistance, formulation advice, raw material and ingredient recommendations and starting point formulae for US and Canadian customers.

“In addition to offering technical guidance, the application centre provides our customers with proof-of-concept formulations showcasing the latest in ingredient technology and industry trends,” said applications lab director Christina Dean. “These formulation prototypes can be used as a starting point for formulators looking to shorten development time or as a guide to using a unique, specialty raw materials.”

Finally, Croda has opened two laboratories with different focuses. The company said that these will enable it “to support customer demand for ideas and technical guidance, while further expanding its position as a thought leader in formulation science and innovation development”.

The Centre of Innovation for Texture Science, in the Sederma subsidiary’s site at Le Perray en Yvelines, France, will focus on creating new textures through its understanding of specialised ingredient combinations to assist customers in both advanced ingredients and formulation development. The Centre of Innovation for Sensory Science, at Croda’s offices in Singapore, will enable it to access sensory trends within skin care in Asia, such as K-Beauty and J-Beauty, while further enhancing its formulation capability, Croda said.