03 JUN | A successful mission to South Korea

Barcelona, 3 of june 2022. The Beauty Cluster has organized a mission to South Korea within the framework of the Global Cosmetics Cluster – Europe project, a European network with the aim of increasing international collaboration for commercial and research purposes, in order to boost the growth of all cluster members. The mission was held together with other European clusters members of the GCC.eu network: France (Cosmetic Valley), Portugal (AEEB), Italy (Polo Tecnologico della Cosmesi), Romania (Transilvania Lifestyle Cluster) and Turkey (IKMIB). 

European Delegation from GCC.eu participating in the Mission to South Korea 

The mission consisted of 4 days full of activities and events related to the beauty industry that helped the participating companies to discover the novelties and trends offered by a market like the Korean one, in addition to promoting the generation of new professional contacts at an international level, both with the European delegation and with local agents of interest for the member companies of the clusters. 

Throughout a busy first day, the cluster’s 30 representatives and members could visit flagship beauty company Kolmar Korea’s R&D center. Kolmar Korea is passionate about making progress, and this includes the first ODM service in the cosmetics industry in Korea, continuous investments in R&D, and approaches to the Chinese and US markets. A player to be considered in the Korean cosmetics market.  

Visit to Kolmar Korea 

After this interesting visit, the participating companies attended an open networking event in which, through brief and direct presentations, they were able to meet and test different brands of the industry with finished product. 

Networking Event at Osong Bio Valley 


Participants also travelled down to Osong to sign an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with beauty hub Chungbuk Province, FKCCI, and International Beauty Industry Trade Association (IBITA)

Visit to Pion-Tech Co. 

The tour continued after the signature with a guided visit to the leading bio venture PION-TECH CO., LTD’s Cosmetic Factory. 

On the second day of our week-long stay in Seoul, members of Global Cosmetics Cluster Europe had once again the opportunity to partake in a busy yet inspiring schedule. 

Abe Cho – Grace International  /  Federica Campari – L’Oréal Korea  /  James No – Sephora Korea 

 
The morning started strong with enlightening conferences by SEPHORA Korea’s GM James (Jim) No , L’Oréal Korea Innovation Center’s GM Federica Campari, and Grace International’s Managing Director Abe Cho – all while enjoying a networking breakfast. 

The delegation then had the opportunity to go on a retail tour to dive deeper in Korea’s cosmetic market, by touring major beauty districts Seongsu, Sinsa and Gangnam, and exploring Korea biggest beauty brands’ flagship stores! 

The third day was time for the cultural day of the agenda in order to get to know the daily reality of the local population and be able to understand their way of living, behaving and relating to each other. This helps greatly to understand the local consumer and to know how to identify why certain trends make sense and how they have come to emerge in a context such as the one we were able to find in Korea. More traditional visits were combined with other more contemporary ones, such as… 

Cultural visit to Gyeongbokgung Palace 

After three days of R&D centers and retail tours, networking sessions, conferences, and cultural visits, GCC.EU delegation could enjoy the highlight of the expedition: participating in COSMOBEAUTY SEOUL 2022, one of Korea’s most renowned beauty exhibitions. 

 
There, representatives of GCC.EU could sign a MOU with FKCCI and International Beauty Industry Trade Association (IBITA), discuss with buyers at their booth, and discover all the secrets of K-Beauty through the visit of more than 250 exhibitors’ kiosks. They could also partake in B2B meetings and press interviews organized by FKCCI. 

Initiatives of this nature are possible thanks to our local partners IBITA and FKCCI and their kindness and efficiency in co-organizing the agenda and, of course, to the European project to support the internationalization of small and medium-sized companies in the cosmetics industry, in which the cluster is directly involved and which is co-financed by the COSME program of the European Union.