L’Oréal Groupe has cut the ribbon on its new North America Research & Innovation Center.
Located in Clark, New Jersey, the US$160m scientific research hub is L’Oreal’s largest outside of France at nearly 250,000sqft.
The R&I Center employs more than 600 scientists, engineers and researchers working across product innovation, development and testing.
The green workspace features 10,000 solar panels, which meet 70% of the facility’s energy needs.
This is in addition to an eco-retention pond for stormwater management, and employee-led gardening and composting initiatives.
“The US plays a defining role in shaping the future of beauty,” said Barbara Lavernos, Deputy CEO of L’Oréal Groupe in charge of Research, Innovation and Technology.
“With its diverse and demanding consumers and world-leading innovation ecosystem, it is the ideal environment to drive our vision forward.
“This center embodies L’Oréal’s uniquely end-to-end innovation model, from upstream advanced research on new breakthrough ingredients to the downstream development of formulas ready for scale-up to deliver high-performance, safe and responsible beauty solutions.”
Lavernos was joined on-site by the Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey, Tahesha L Way; L’Oréal Groupe CEO Nicolas Hieronimus; and David Greenberg, CEO of L’Oréal USA and President of the North America Zone, at a ribbon-cutting event on 27 February.
“The grand opening of our research center in New Jersey represents a transformative new chapter in L’Oréal’s storied history in the US,” added Greenberg.
“This investment will enable us to pioneer groundbreaking product innovations for American consumers that anticipate global market needs.”
As well as France and the US, L’Oréal counts R&I hubs in Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Japan.
The North America R&I Center broke ground in 2022 and began welcoming employees as early as mid-2023.
Full operations commenced last month.
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