Unilever invests in UK fragrance facility leveraging AI and perfumer expertise
Unilever has announced an investment of £80 million (US$107 million) to build in-house fragrance capabilities in the UK. The investment will go toward establishing a fragrance facility in Port Sunlight (subject to planning permission), developing digital capabilities, and recruiting fragrance talent and expertise.
The facility will include a fragrance research and innovation lab, a compounding facility where new fragrances are blended and developed, and evaluation suites where products are tested to assess performance and preference.
The site will be digitally enabled with robotics to blend fragrance oils and real-time data capture, enabling digital modeling, analytics, and AI to drive fragrance development. The company will also use consumer insights in its fragrance product development processes.
Innovation for hire
Unilever says the money will enable it to bring fragrance innovation at greater speed and efficiency to its Home Care, Personal Care, and Beauty & Wellbeing brands. These brands include Persil, Dove, Rexona, and TreSemmé.
The FMCG giant uses fragrance in its product offerings, such as shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers, body washes, deodorants, laundry, and home cleaning.
The budget is also allocated toward talent recruitment. Unilever says it will hire perfumers with cross-category expertise from fragrance houses worldwide.
Unilever will hire expert perfumers to improve its scent innovation. The specialist team will include fragrance evaluators trained to smell and assess fragrances, and ingredient technologists working on Unilever’s long-term technology program.
“Our new fragrance facility and expert perfumers will enable us to bring fragrance insight and innovation to our brands at speed and, working with our partners, to reinvent how fragrances are created for consumer products, leveraging cutting-edge science along with AI and robotics,” says Richard Slater, chief R&D officer at Unilever.
Interest in investment
The in-house fragrance capabilities investment is Unilever’s latest in a wider £300 million (US$401 million) investment in the UK across offices, R&D sites, and factories in the next two years.
Port Sunlight is Unilever’s largest innovation site in the UK. In addition to two factories and two R&D labs, the company has opened an Advanced Manufacturing Center and the Materials Innovation Factory, built in collaboration with the University of Liverpool.
Beyond the UK, Unilever recently announced it will invest US$1.5 billion from 2025 to 2028 in Mexico to expand its beauty and personal care operations. The centerpiece is a US$408.5 million manufacturing facility in Salinas Victoria, Nuevo León.
