Unilever is investing US$270m in a new US-based Global Innovation Centre, which will be an R&D hub for its personal care, beauty and wellbeing brands.
Based in New Haven, Connecticut, the digital-first centre will house new technologies to help drive scale and speed-to-market for Unilever’s beauty brands, including the computational power of quantum, which it claims will accelerate advanced materials discovery.
The centre also aims to enable faster scaling of product development with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, while enhancing partnerships via access to biosciences and emerging quantum ecosystems of talent, academia and technology partners.
Estimated to open by spring 2029, the new centre builds on the nearly $15bn invested by Unilever in its US business over the past decade, across both acquisitions and capital projects.
The company said the new hub will drive growth for its brands, which serve 95% of US households.
“New Haven gets us to the future faster,” said Herrish Patel, President of Unilever USA and CEO of Personal Care North America.
“Our Global Innovation Centre is where we will innovate at the intersection of science, technology and culture – for the US and for the world.
“We will build on our deep heritage of innovation to develop the next-generation of brands and products that people love.”
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Unilever’s Global Innovation Centre will bring together a combination of assets and capabilities – science-led innovation, demand creation and operational execution – which it said will “accelerate breakthroughs”.
All of Unilever’s R&D capabilities – including formulation, fragrance creation, packaging design and consumer insights – will be housed under one roof, enabling “deeper collaboration” for product development.
The centre also aims to enhance Unilever scientists’ use of cutting-edge neuroscience to create next-generation beauty products, connecting sensory attributes like texture, fragrance and bioactives with emotional, behavioural and wellness responses.
Unilever said it will invest $270m in the project over the long term, including $50m in capital expenditure, but the total combined investment of public and private funds in the centre will exceed $300m.
Approximately 300 employees will work at the hub, succeeding Unilever's existing R&D facility in Trumbull, Connecticut, which has operated since 1972.
“As part of Unilever’s global network of innovation hubs, the centre will connect closely with our other leading locations worldwide, sharing technology, insights and breakthrough ideas to accelerate innovation at scale,” added Patel.
“As the US becomes a centre of gravity for Unilever, we are harnessing the best of American innovation to match our growth ambition here in the US and around the world.”
What capabilities will be housed at Unilever’s new Global Innovation Centre?
- Global centre for skin care and cleansing – aiming to power the future of Unilever’s skin care and cleansing business through advanced capabilities
- Polycultural skin and hair centre of excellence – specialising in creating ingredients and products that address the “unmet needs” of consumers
- Human performance lab – generating unprecedented new data and insights into human physiology, enabling on-site testing of ingestibles
- Unilever fragrance house – with perfumers, chemists and packaging designers working together from the earliest stages of development, placing fragrance at the heart of product creation and sensory experience.
- Packaging innovation studio – incorporating real-time consumer feedback to accelerate the development of prototypes that perform across physical and digital shelves.
“Behind every Unilever product is world-leading science that delivers superior performance, combined with design, fragrance and sensory experiences that make our brands distinctive,” said Richard Slater, Unilever Chief Research & Development Officer.
“Our new Global Innovation Centre will bring these capabilities together to develop new, category-defining innovations in the US, and scale globally.
“The real shift here is integration and speed: science, design and sensorials working as one, with AI and partnerships accelerating every stage of innovation.”
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