Some answers from our CEO Luc Van den Brande:

• How were the last few years in the cosmetic market? 
Over the last few years, the cosmetic market has experienced significant and interesting developments: we have seen the opening of the Eastern European and Russian markets with measurable influence on volumes and capacity; the western European market has shown more stability, while export to the US and Asian markets have been affected by the changing relation between US$ and Euro. Finally, the ongoing activity in the mergers & acquisitions area has also touched cosmetic companies, making the customer base smaller and more competitive.

• What do you think about the future?
The future for the cosmetic industry and its products looks very promising and I think we should be careful in keeping our eyes open for the development of Far East markets. The Chinese and the Asian demand in general is already showing an increasing trend towards higher class cosmetic products, and next to that, I expect India to express its potential of large consuming market in the near future. Therefore, we will take a closer look at India in the upcoming future.
In addition, we see some production capacity closures with consequent refocus of some companies from production to marketing, their real strengths. This process will of course represent very interesting new challenges for Proficos.

• What has your company achieved in the past?
Over the past few years, Proficos has increased its focus on key areas such as quality and flexibility. These rewarding efforts contributed not only to the evolution of our customer base that includes now some of the world leaders of the cosmetic industry but also led to an overall continuous growth of our company.

• How would you like your company to face future challenges?
Without leaving the high levels reached in quality and flexibility, Proficos has to further increase its focus on new products development participating with all partners, customers, suppliers of raw materials and packaging manufacturers, from the very beginning of the project or idea.
In line with this strategy, we are increasing our investments in our R&D and engineering departments, as well as in new products development.
In other words we want to transform ourselves from a good reactive company into an excellent pro active partner for the cosmetic industry.

• What is important for Proficos?
All across the company the most important challenge is the high level of quality we can offer to our partners. Next to that remains of course the flexibility, and in the future this might mean to follow our customers to those countries and markets where they will be focusing on.

• How do you see your relationship with clients and partners?
I expect that the already good relationship we have with our partners will become even more intense and fruitful in the future.
In the past, we undertook several global developments starting from customers’ ideas. In the future, we want to develop new trends and products together with our partners to better target our clients and present them with the best solution for their own need. This means of course strengthen the relationships we have with our existing partners and work closer to our customers.