Premium Beauty News - The Pochet Group has just celebrated its 400th anniversary. Could you take stock of these events?
Xavier Gagey - It was an exceptional year filled with celebrations on all our sites. It helped gather all our employees, both current and retired, the shareholding family members, as well as our customers, suppliers, the authorities, our partners, etc. We definitely wanted to celebrate our history and the group’s exceptional longevity.
This anniversary was an opportunity to reunite all teams and have them focus on a shared project: that was a key point after the Qualipac sell-off project. Also, it helped us strengthen our historic relationships with our customers, who were able to (re)discover the Group, its history and creations. Our history is also theirs.
Premium Beauty News - What are your targets for the years to come?
Xavier Gagey - Our 400th anniversary is a great opportunity to resolutely look to the future from a sustainable perspective. This is actually part of a strategic plan we have defined until 2026, with the clear objective shared by our teams to be the key, long-lasting partner of the beauty industry. It represents an investment of 160 million euros in four years for the whole group, and it is structured around three pillars: be a responsible player for both humans and the planet, a value-provider through our performance, and a premium solution creator for our customers, in particular thanks to our unique expertise in multi-materials, innovative partnerships, and trading.
Premium Beauty News - Let us talk about the first pillar. What has been provided for regarding sustainability and decarbonation?
Xavier Gagey - Driven by the shareholding family’s strong beliefs, the Pochet Group has long committed to a CSR approach integrating both climate and social issues at its core. Now, we have been redefining our roadmap for 2023-2030, the details of which will be presented at the next Luxe Pack Monaco show. We have put a strong emphasis on decarbonation to reduce our CO2 emissions by 50% by 2033.
This decarbonation plan involves many projects: for example, our first oven will be 100% electric as soon as late 2024. It will be the first electric oven for luxury bottling in France. There is also our measuring tool to monitor our energy consumption per item, as part of the Metron project in partnership with Chanel. It is the first time we have given our teams the means to act in real time, on each item, to reduce our plants’ energy consumption. In addition, we will support our customers in speeding up project development with virtuous plastics.
It is also worth noting that women and men are at the core of this CSR strategy. We have put an emphasis on this objective by investing over 10 million euros to enhance sorting stations ergonomics, helping to guarantee our employees their jobs, in optimum conditions.
Premium Beauty News - As part of your decarbonation commitments, do you think you will be able to reduce your waste share?
Xavier Gagey - The Pochet Group is an expert at maintaining excellent glass quality and extremely high quality requirements, while working on reducing waste production through digitalization. Three years ago, we started to implement an Artificial Intelligence tool in our glassmaking plant to better control our processes and product quality. Today’s tools make it possible to reduce waste levels without affecting quality. Our customers are looking to premiumize their packaging as part of their sustainability strategies. So, our mission consists in supporting them in fulfilling these objectives, while enhancing our product quality.
Premium Beauty News - Is the expectation for very high-end products related to the third pillar you were talking about, i.e. to create premium solutions?
Xavier Gagey - Indeed, our customers expect us to support them with their strategic launches and in reaching their sustainable development objectives. We create both innovative and premium solutions, as our latest launches show, like Fame by Rabanne and the new Prada Beauty makeup line. These examples perfectly illustrate what the Group can provide, on the one hand, with the multi-material, glass, decoration, aluminium, and plastic offering. This expertise is really unique, and we keep enhancing it by strengthening the bonds between our innovation and sales teams. On the other hand, our trading solution is meant to broaden the group’s capacity by offering new technological capabilities, thanks to our partners. Lastly, we have been building partnerships with our ecosystem, for example with MagREESource, who have developed an innovative technology to recycle magnets sourced in France. This will significantly reduce our carbon footprint, while preserving luxury codes.
Premium Beauty News - The Pochet company has been part of the French heritage for four centuries. Have you considered developing production outside France?
Xavier Gagey - Producing in France is a strength in our professions. When it comes to supply chain agility and carbon impact, being close to our customers is a significant competitive asset. And this advantage is all the more important given the geopolitical risks our customers increasingly integrate to their supply securing plans. We are present in Brazil and China for metals and plastics, and we are still open to new opportunities to support our customers’ growth.
Premium Beauty News - How do you think the market will evolve?
Xavier Gagey - Just like our customers, I trust the beauty market will do well in the future, because the recent growth observed on the premium perfume market should be long-lasting, in particular thanks to Asia. Still, after two exceptional years, it will probably slow down, because our customers have replenished stocks.
The beauty market is definitely changing, as customers are getting increasingly demanding. For the Pochet Group, this phenomenon is a great opportunity to highlight its assets and fulfil its objective to be a long-lasting, key partner of the Beauty industry.
