"Innovation and digitalization are the success factors for sustainability, efficiency and safety," says Emidio Zorzella, CEO of Antares Vision Group.

Consumers are increasingly interested and informed about quality, origin of ingredients and sustainability of production processes. At the same time, they are increasingly attracted to the brand story and values associated with the product they are buying.

In France, the post-pandemic cosmetics sector had a contrasting year in 2020: a contraction in sales of 20 %, a historic decline on exports of 11.8 %, the 1st since 2009, and an increase of 20.7% in exports to China, instead of 48 % in 2019 (source DGDDI and FEBEA 2021), companies in the sector are relying on innovative trends to resume their rise.

Quality, transparency and sustainability are the requirements of Safe Beauty

Safe Beauty is one of the main trends in the industry, which sees health and beauty closely linked in the purchase of "transparent" products, with greater attention paid to brands and sustainability from end to end of the supply chain, both in terms of the raw materials used and the production processes and packaging characteristics. According to the ESV Digital study, Slow Cosmetics is also on the rise! With time spent at home on the rise and the wearing of masks, habits have been turned upside down. The French are looking for ecological, healthy, intelligent and reasonable cosmetics!

The pandemic has also seen an increase in online sales worldwide, and the trend continues to grow. In France, e-commerce increased by 42 % compared to the previous year, cosmetics represent 10% of e-commerce in 2020 compared to 7 % in 2019 (source ESV Digital March 2021). This scenario increases the risks for the beauty and cosmetics sector in terms of counterfeiting and proliferation of parallel markets, with repercussions for brand reputation and consumer trust.

"To meet this new evolution of needs, Antares Vision Group - a company listed since April 2019 on the Italian stock exchange on the AIM market dedicated to dynamic and competitive SMEs - offers specific solutions for the beauty industry to guarantee quality, security, integrity and complete traceability of the supply chain," emphasizes Nicolas Perrin, Director of the subsidiary Antares Vision France. Our traceability solutions are tailored to the requirements of Safe Beauty."

An international specialist in the pharmaceutical sector for Track & Trace hardware and software solutions (anti-counterfeiting and supply chain transparency), the Antares Vision group is one of the leading players in inspection systems (quality control) and intelligent data management (production efficiency and digitization of the end-to-end supply chain: from raw materials to the end consumer).

From pharmaceuticals to cosmetics

By exploiting the know-how acquired during more than twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, the Antares Vision Group is a reference partner for a particularly demanding cosmetics industry sector, both for consumers, who are increasingly better informed and demand guaranteed and transparent products, and for manufacturers and brands, whose challenges concern the efficiency and optimization, but also the sustainability of production processes.

This is thanks to innovative solutions for automatic visual inspection (which guarantee the total quality, safety and integrity of cosmetic products, thanks to precise control of ingredients, production processes and packaging), end-to-end traceability (which allows the complete life cycle of a product to be tracked, achieving a true revolution in the supply chain thanks to the creation of a digital identity for each unit) and intelligent data management (to maximize production efficiency and consumer experience, also thanks to artificial intelligence).

"Innovation and research are the two key factors in the development of the cosmetics industry in recent years. The constant improvement in the quality and transparency of the products we use daily for personal care is the result of studies and the implementation of new technologies for process optimization and supply chain management. In order to continue to compete in the major international markets, the digitization process is the real trump card: collecting data, transforming it into information and processing it so that it can provide value. The result is a higher standard of sustainability, resource optimization and consumer safety."says Emidio Zorzella, CEO of Antares Vision Group.

Through technology, supply chain transparency and full control of the product life cycle can be guaranteed, for a higher standard of safety and efficiency for brands, the contract manufacturing industry and end consumers. The concept of Trustparency, invented by Antares Vision, enables the establishment of trust through product transparency, supply chain transparency and information sharing. Guaranteeing the origin and quality of ingredients and raw materials, the history of a product at each stage of production, supply chain information, as well as protecting authenticity become an important part of a brand's reputation and its relationship with the end consumer. Antares Vision now offers a single, integrated and scalable solution to ensure quality, transparency and sustainability.

The 3rd Cosmed-SVP report on economic and strategic intelligence for companies in the cosmetics industry has been published.

In 2020, at national level, business failures in France fell by 38.1 1TP6Q, reaching their lowest level in 30 years. Several factors explain these figures. First of all, the aid measures put in place to support entrepreneurs. Secondly, creditor summonses, which traditionally account for 30 % of liquidations, have disappeared. Frozen until the summer due to regulatory changes, assignments did not resume at the end of the year, as public and private creditors were encouraged to seek out-of-court settlements. However, it is feared that the rise will resume in 2021, for three reasons: as a result of a catch-up, when aid ceases (hence the need to plan for a gradual phasing-out of aid) and when creditors start assigning again.

However, the cosmetics industry is proving all the alarmist forecasts wrong. Government measures (PGE, short-time working, etc.) have greatly reduced the difficulties, and the claims rate is very low. The morale of managers in the cosmetics industry's VSEs, SMEs and SMBs is very good (77 to 82 1Q6T), up three points on the previous quarter. This is in stark contrast to other industrial sectors, where the majority of SME managers (53 %) are still worried about their company's long-term viability.

The cosmetics industry is once again proving its resilience. It is mobilizing the resources of the stimulus plan primarily for investment, particularly in the ecological transition.

The new Cosmed-SVP quarterly report summarizes key information on the life of companies in the cosmetics sector: trends, market figures, player news and market outlook.

This report is supplemented by key indicators for the cosmetics industry's VSE-SME-ETI. This summary presents the quarterly evolution of key figures relating to the life of companies in the cosmetics industry: investment, innovation, employment, economic outlook, management morale. The aim is to help professionals measure, over time, the economic impact of the general context.