After making it one of the priority sectors of its " Regional plan for economic development, innovation and internationalization On January 16, the Île-de-France region signed a strategic partnership with the "Impact 2028" Competitiveness Cluster. Cosmetic Valley "The aim is to reinforce the French perfume and cosmetics industry's role as a world leader, to help preserve its traditions, trades and know-how, and to develop its performance in research and creation.
The aim of this agreement is, first and foremost, to build a business network from the pool of cosmetics companies in the Paris region, turning it into a truly efficient and coherent industrial fabric, accelerating R&D projects and helping the companies that join it to expand internationally, thereby reinforcing the strengths of the Paris region's economy in the "cosmetics" field. beauty ": tests, measurements, olfaction and artificial intelligence.
The ambition of this new association is also to create, in the Île-de-France region, on the model of the Fashion Weeka Cosmetic Week with global resonance. This event, combining site openings, demonstrations, workshops, etc., is designed to give French and Parisian cosmetics a high international profile. Unrivalled in Europe to date, this event is designed to connect ETIs, VSEs/SMEs, start-ups, major companies and research institutes, and to bring their work and methods to the general public.
With an export market share of 24%1 and 3,200 companies employing nearly 250,000 people and generating sales of 45 billion euros, the perfume and cosmetics industry is the third largest contributor to France's foreign trade balance, behind aerospace and wines & spirits.
It was therefore essential for Europe's leading economic region to be at the heart of this success story. Ile-de-France accounts for 70% of sales in this industrial sector, and is home to almost 40,000 of its employees. The region is home to a powerful ecosystem, concentrating most of the industry's control levers, a large number of factories, plants and plants, combining downstream logistics and upstream R&D, as well as a number of top-ranking schools.
This mobilization was necessary. In addition to New York, Milan and Tokyo, the Paris Region now faces competition from Shanghai, Taiwan and Seoul, three global metropolises that have made cosmetics a lever of attractiveness, sometimes by combining it with other sectors of the future (digital, robotics, connected objects). Maintaining a leadership position in this context means bringing together all the players in the industry and getting them to act together, in order to promote the results of research that combines private laboratories and public universities, to conquer new Texport markets, to find solutions to the many tensions weighing on the recruitment of companies in the sector, and to remain attractive in the eyes of foreign companies in the industry. Thanks to the commitment of Choose Paris Région, the Île-de-France region's attraction agency, this agreement should also help to promote the Paris region to the many foreign groups looking to set up operations here and benefit from its rich ecosystem. Fabriqué en France", which is based on four pillars - ingredient authenticity, consumer safety, environmental protection and innovation performance - is our best asset in achieving this.
Cosmetic Valley is the player appointed by the French government to carry out this mission. Charged with promoting French quality, the Pôle de Compétitivité brings together 800 companies, large and small, accelerating their innovation processes and coordinating them with national and European public research. Working with 20 universities and research centers, including the CNRS, it leads 400 research projects and collaborative investments worth a total of 500 million euros.
In Île-de-France, Cosnietic Valley is already working to promote French cosmetics. Every October, it organizes the "Cosnietic 360" international cosmetics innovation trade show in Paris. Choose Paris Région takes part, marking the presence of the Paris Region since 2021.
Cosmetic Valley, for its part, is deeply involved in a number of cooperative ventures with top-level universities and schools in the Paris region. The cluster works even more directly with the University of Cergy-Pontoise (specialized in the use of lasers to study skin and hair), the SOLEIL synchrotron in Saclay (a research laboratory using light to analyze skin, hair and their interactions with cosmetics), the School of Industrial Biology and ISIPCA, an institute training the world's top perfumers.
This partnership is a promising one. It marks a new turning point in our strategy to intensify the public-private partnerships necessary for the development of French cosmetics.
