Swiss chemicals firm Clariant launches consumer-care competence centre here
Singapore
SWISS specialty-chemicals company Clariant on Wednesday unveiled its new consumer-care competence centre in Singapore, in a bid to better align its products with customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
With a total of five application development centres now in the region, Clariant's new Singapore centre, which includes an application lab, is the first that focuses on sensorial testing for personal and home-care products in the Asia-Pacific.
Stephan Lynen, head of Clariant's Asia-Pacific industrial and consumer specialties unit, said that the new centre would help its partners find claims for future trends. "It will serve as the link to our wide production and innovation network," he added.
Among the centre's purview are sensorial tests for skin moisture, hair shininess, fabric softness as well as product safety, a Clariant spokeswoman told BT. The centre is located at The Synergy, a research and development (R&D) facility at the International Business Park where Clariant's head office in Singapore - which is also its regional hub for South-east Asia and Pacific - is situated. Clariant is today a 160-man-strong team in Singapore, including seven new employees currently working in the centre.
The company chose to set up its competency centre in Singapore to tap the country's proximity to established regional key accounts and manufacturing facilities, as well as its strong base of researchers and academic institutions, said Clariant's spokeswoman, who declined to reveal how much the company invested in the new facility.
Eugene Leong, director of energy and chemicals at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), said that Clariant's investment adds diversity to Singapore's chemicals industry, enhances the country's growing consumer-care sector and shows how companies leverage Singapore to get closer to their customers.
Since 2011, Singapore's public investments have catalysed S$8.6 billion of industry R&D. It has been possible because A*Star partners a range of companies, including not just Clariant, but also its customers such as FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brandowners, Mr Leong said. "This approach provides added value, because A*Star can serve as a node to connect the various types of innovation that happen across the value chain."
To help companies get even closer to the end-consumer, the EDB has established a S$77 million Institute on Asian Consumer Insights, which conducts research, conferences and executive programmes to help companies better understand and cater to consumers in Asia.
