Unilever investing in fragrance with a new in-house team

Beauty giant Unilever is investing 100 million euros to scale up its fragrance design and creation capabilities across our global portfolio with a new digital-first fragrance creation house.

Historically, Unilever has partnered with fragrance houses around the world to create its scents, but it believes that growing its in-house fragrance capabilities will allow the company to transition to a hybrid model, “where our digitally enabled teams are involved in every step of innovation, formulating fragrances that fit perfectly with our products”.

The move supports the company's strategy to accelerate growth and increase productivity by allowing it to gain greater control of the design and refinement of its fragrances. It will combine its scientific expertise in areas, such as neuroscience, AI and digital product development with existing partnerships to help deliver "consistent and affordable products” across its brands more quickly.

In addition, growing its in-house capability will also give Unilever the agility to identify and respond to new fragrance trends, moving swiftly through product creation, formulation, design, manufacturing and launching to market.

Richard Slater, chief research and development officer at Unilever, said in a statement: “We are thrilled to announce a 100-million-euro investment to build a leading-edge fragrance house at Unilever. This initiative will enable us to create and develop our own fragrances, as well as continue to work closely with our important existing partners in the industry.

“By recruiting expert perfumers and leveraging new capabilities including digital technology and AI, we will help drive unmissable brand superiority in line with Unilever’s Growth Action Plan, developing fragrances that consumers love and enhancing the overall experience of our products.”

Unilever adds that it has already started to hire expert perfumers across the UK, US and India and will grow its global team to focus on fragrance creation, fragrance evaluation, measurement, testing and data analytics.

Last month, Unilever also appointed Mathieu Lenoir as its global creative centre director for fragrance. He has worked in the fragrance world for more than 30 years, including roles at several leading perfume houses.