On Tuesday June 20, 2023, the 29th Cosmetic Valley General Meeting was held in Évreux. Numerous topics were on the agenda, including the dynamics of the cosmetics industry in Normandy, the specificity of the ecosystem located in the Évreux Portes de Normandie area, and the cluster's many projects in terms of transitions, employment, innovation and internationalization.
On this occasion, the Normandy region, represented by Sophie Gaugain, 1st vice-president, renewed its commitment to Cosmetic Valley for a further three years by signing a partnership agreement for the period 2023-2025 as part of phase 5 of the competitiveness clusters. This signature marks the Region's strong support for players in Normandy's cosmetics industry. It also demonstrates the region's determination to strengthen its areas of excellence, which reflect the major challenges facing the transformation of our sector on a national and European scale: ensuring the sector's ecological transition while maintaining our high standards of product safety.
A flagship region for the cluster, which has had a regional office in Caen since 2017, Normandy is home to a network of nearly 250 companies, groups, ETIs, VSEs, SMEs and start-ups, representing the entire value chain of the perfume and cosmetics industry, with sales of 7 billion euros and 8,000 jobs. The Cosmetic Valley cluster has generated 104 R&D projects, representing 154 million euros of investment in the region.
This three-year contract proposes an ambitious roadmap:
- Grow the Normandy ecosystem, in particular the number of cosmetics companies supported by Cosmetic Valley.
- Strengthen the area of strategic territorial excellence in cosmetics safety.
- Develop innovation and the number of R&D projects involving public and private players based in Normandy.
- Forge partnerships with the Nordic countries, Ireland and the UK, as part of the European strategy supported by Cosmetic Valley through its S3 Go4cosmetics platform and its network of clusters.
- Promote the attractiveness of our professions and develop skills, since employment is a priority for the cosmetics sector, which is investing massively in France to meet the demands of the international market.
- Support companies in their export strategy, drawing on Cosmetic Valley's international network and the strength of its collective brand for the industry. Among the remarkable territories in Normandy, the general meeting highlighted the strength of the Evreux conurbation which, through its academic and industrial network, holds a singular position in the national ecosystem: that of product safety testing and evaluation, embodied in particular by the Cosmetomics platform run by the Ebroise branch of the University of Rouen.
Photo: Sophie Gaugain, 1st Vice-President of the Normandy Region
Frédéric Grimaud
