[Report] Kolmar Korea Builds Smart Factory... Defect-Free K-Beauty

1 hour 20 minutes from Seoul... Clean exterior reminiscent of a research institute
Annual production of 28,000 tons... Reaching 450 million finished products
Producing products for over 700 clients... Lotions, shampoos, perfumes, foundations, and more

KOLMAR Korea Sejong Factory located in Jeonui-myeon, Sejong City. Photo by Kolmar

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] On the 10th, after traveling a total of about 1 hour and 20 minutes by KTX and taxi from Seoul, I arrived at the Kolmar Korea Sejong Factory. Its clean exterior resembled a research institute more than a production plant. At the entrance, over 700 products produced by Kolmar to date were displayed, catching the eye. Since the client companies are well-known cosmetics brands that consumers recognize by name, browsing through the products one by one brought a sense of familiarity. In a small history room, the business registration certificate from 1990 was also preserved, showing the history of Kolmar as it is.

The products produced here exceed 28,000 tons annually. Last year alone, 450 million finished products were packaged and shipped. They continuously manufacture basic cosmetics such as skin toner and lotion, daily necessities like shampoo and body wash, fragrance products including perfume and cleansing oil, as well as color cosmetics such as foundation and mascara.

The Sejong factory covers a total floor area of 34,651㎡, and the main production process operates as raw material receipt → weighing → manufacturing → filling → packaging → shipping. When raw materials arrive, they are blended according to their respective weights and sent to the filling and packaging room where they are filled into containers, packaged, boxed, and shipped.

At this stage, the part Kolmar Korea pays the most attention to is Quality Control (QC). There is a QC system at every manufacturing process to thoroughly filter out defective products. In the quality control room, products are judged as suitable or unsuitable, and a system is in place to check for organic substances that serve as nutrients for microorganisms according to the Total Organic Carbon (TOC) indicator. Since they mainly produce cosmetics and daily necessities applied directly to the skin, Kolmar emphasizes strict hygiene, health, and safety management.

At Kolmar Korea's Sejong factory, the uniformity of cosmetic weights is being checked through an AI-powered automation system. Photo by Kolmar

Since 2019, Kolmar Korea has been promoting digital transformation by establishing a smart factory and processing all the original data they had. Before the smart factory was built, it was difficult to identify the cause of problems at a glance during the production process, and defects were often discovered only after quality inspections post-production, resulting in high costs. However, after building the smart factory utilizing big data, the defect rate in the manufacturing process decreased by 42%.

Kolmar is set to be the first domestic cosmetics company to launch its own private brand (PB) cosmetics tailored for the Middle Eastern market soon. They have agreed to supply PB products to ‘UAE BPC,’ a business consulting organization for import and export in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Through this, they expect to actively target the 30 trillion won scale Middle Eastern cosmetics market starting next year. The products supplied to the Middle East will mainly be derma (dermatological science) cosmetics, focusing on functions such as moisture supply and skin barrier reinforcement considering the local climate. Previously, Kolmar Korea laid the groundwork for Middle Eastern expansion by establishing ‘Halal certification systems’ for basic and color cosmetics production at the Sejong and Bucheon factories, respectively.

Kim Choongwon, head of the factory management team at Kolmar Korea, said, "In February 2020, we obtained the qualification to issue export-certified test reports internationally recognized for lead, nickel, arsenic, microorganisms, and other fields." He added, "These reports can be used by 105 accredited organizations in 104 countries that are members of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and 46 accredited organizations in 28 countries that are members of the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC). Through this, we plan to continuously prove Kolmar Korea’s internationally recognized quality level."