Medicos is one of those French industrial SMEs that are doing well, and which do not hesitate to invest to modernize their equipment and expand their offer. Thanks to its four specialized sites, the company is in a position to meet the packaging needs of cosmetics players and to be a driving force behind proposals, in particular to help brands comply with the new PPWR regulations.
"As we enter the year 2025, it's a happy coincidence that the combined age of Medicos' four industrial units means we're celebrating our 300th anniversary! 100 years for the Izernore plant (formerly Mino Gaillard), 100 years for the Chassal plant (formerly Janvier), 60 years for the Milan plant (formerly CO.VE) and 40 years for the Rombach plant in Alsace (formerly Dinamic Emballages). "says Cédric Marmonier, President of Medicos.
Dinamic Emballages, a plasturgist specializing in the production of single and bi-material injected parts for the beauty, food and pharmaceutical industries, as well as technical parts, and equipped with highly automated processes, is the most recent acquisition of the Lyon-based group. This acquisition, formalized in 2024, enables the company to enrich its know-how and consolidate its beauty division.
An industrial group
Founded in 2002 with the acquisition of plastic injection company RR Plastiques, Medicos has gone from strength to strength, becoming a recognized industrial group in the packaging sector. Having divested its healthcare assets in 2018, it is now focusing on its beauty and food activities, positioning itself as a major player in plastic injection and drawn glass.
Medicos Beauty offers French and international brands a complete range of full-service products for the cosmetics, perfumery and make-up segments (jars, droppers, roll-ons, perfume caps, etc.). The Group masters the entire value chain, from product design to decoration. The synergy between its entities enables it to offer customized solutions. The beauty sector accounts for 68 % of its business.
The group's strengths: its industrial park. "We design customized special machines for our own products as well as for specific customer products. We develop in-line assembly and decoration machines. We have a project to extend the Medicos Chassal site in order to develop our machines for the whole Group. This involves an expansion program of over 800 m2 over 2025 afin order to pursue our in-house development of special machines and provide industrialization solutions as close as possible to our customers' needs."says site manager Elodie Perrot.
Process and product innovations
At the heart of Medicos' approach: process innovation within a CSR framework. The group has set up a vast development program for its automated machines, produced in-house, and integrates latest-generation equipment such as machine vision. Its energy consumption is monitored afin order to avoid any wastage, and rejects are reintegrated into processes.
Médicos also innovates on the product side. For example, the La Roche Posay roll-on dropper. The manufacturer has put its expertise in dosage at the service of the brand to design an innovative gesture, the roll-on tip providing comfort of use with the integrated cold effect massage.
The Group, which produces 40 % of standard packaging and 60 % of specific packaging, did not wait for the application of the European PPWR regulation (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) on the management of packaging and packaging waste to take action and establish a roadmap around the circular economy. " We create and strive to create packaging that is lighter in weight, refillable, contains recycled and recyclable materials. For example, since 2020 we have been developing a range of standard refillable or reusable lightweight jars that can contain recycled and recyclable materials. Today, 85% of the products in this range are made from recycled and recyclable materials. And our goal is to reach 100 %. This involves numerous qualifications, modifications to our tooling, process reviews and the mobilization of our teams. We also work hard to explain to our customers that they sometimes have to accept a slightly lower perceived quality.says site manager Denis Moiraud.
Designing eco-responsible packaging is also the result of partnerships with suppliers: "We open our doors to them, and they come along to try things out and watch the tests. Currently, for example, we're working with a raw material producer on a recycled PET, 100 % mechanical, developed in France. This requires concessions and work, a lot of time, energy and investment.continues Denis Moiraud. For plastic injection molding, we work with different types of materials: petro-sourced materials, mechanically recycled materials (grinding technology), chemically recycled materials (molecular recycling) and materials derived from biomass.
Recent product developments include an innovative Re-CliCK refill (a Medicos patent) adopted by Melvita of the L'Occitane group. Medicos also recently announced a collaboration between Medicos Beauty, IMCD Group (a responsible distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients) and Eastman (a developer of specialty materials) to offer Cristal One Renew IM812, a recyclable material with up to 100 % of ISCC-certified recycled content. Perfect for thick-walled jars, this material - compatible with the RIC-1 recycling stream and manufactured with up to 100 % of molecular recycled content - offers, according to the packaging solutions manufacturer, glass-like clarity.
| Manufacturing facilities at four sites Plastic injection molding - A fleet of 92 presses - Integrated high-performance modules + IML - Multi-cavity molds Drawn glass - 8 Vertical rotary machines - Automated feeder - Control cameras Decoration - Integrated decorations on plastic and glass - MAC, Screen printing (on plastic and glass), pad printing, laser, lacquering Completion - 35 Automated machines - 10 3D printing machines |
