Driven by scientific curiosity and the claim of producing high-quality and sustainable cosmetic products, KHK GmbH has been an expert for lip, hand and body care products made from natural and vegetablebased ingredients for almost 30 years. In 2020, the company moved to larger premises in the suburbs of Cologne and intensified its sustainability efforts.
“We actually hadn’t intended to move,” the company founder and managing partner of KHK, Dr. Thomas Kiepe, explained. “But our premises were actually bursting at the seams after the new filling line arrived that we had ordered to increase our production capacities so that we can satisfy the ever-increasing demand. So, we looked round for alternative locations and finally found the site here in Hürth, approx. 15 km away from our original headquarters.”
The relocation project proved to be anything but simple, Kiepe reported. Once an appropriate property that met the demands of the cosmetic experts had finally be found, the concrete moving plans were drawn up. “The biggest problem was the electricity supply. The local supply company really held us up at the beginning. For example, it took several months before they finally supplied the necessary transformer station so that we could get underway at the new location,” commented Kiepe. Then, the main hall had to be adapted to suit the company’s needs. It had previously been used to store cheese in high-bay shelves, so there was no natural source of light. “Luckily, the smell has gone in the meantime,” laughed Kiepe. Before we started operating windows and skylights had to be installed and smaller halls had to be erected inside the main hall to separate the laboratory and the production area off from the remaining departments. Now, three boiler systems, three filling lines, screen printing and digital printing machines, the laboratory and extensive storage space are located in a production and storage area spanning around 2,000 m². In contrast to the old site, the new warehousing space is on the ground floor, which facilitates the production steps on the one hand as well as the work of the suppliers.
The whole team relocated
The managing partner, Dr. Thomas Kiepe and Carolin Haverkamp, Director Private Label, in the meeting room of the new headquarters in Hürth. In the background: atmospheric environment-friendly, living moss pictures.
As the Managing Director explained the move wasn’t purely about relocating and renovating the new building, social questions and the theme mobility were also addressed: “At the start of the project we posed the question: Is everyone actually on board? Our headquarters in Rodenkirchen were very central and easy to reach from everywhere. We didn’t want it to be difficult for our employees to get to work all of a sudden.” KHK offers two attractive alternatives to physically driving to work in a car, namely the Job Ticket and the Job Bike and according to Kiepe this offer is gladly accepted by many. “Our carpark has been getting emptier every year. But we weren’t sure whether moving premises might not hamper these efforts. Fortunately, these fears proved to be totally unfounded. The whole team moved with us, not one person handed in his notice. We are very happy about that.” Carolin Haverkamp, authorised signatory and Head of Private Label, added: “We were lucky that all of the company’s employees saw this as a chance to push the further development of the company forward. It is simply fun developing and achieving something as a team.”
The new boiler for the bulk production has a capacity of 850 kg and can manufacture up to 150,000 lipcare sticks in just one batch.
The chemist, Dr. Sivatharushan Sivanathan, is responsible for creating and testing new (lip)care formulas at KHK.
Not only the production capacity has expanded significantly since the move, the sustainability efforts of the cosmetic manufacturer have also been stepped up over the past years. In the year 2020, KHK was distinguished with the Platinum Seal by EcoVadis for the first time, in 2021 the company was awarded the seal again. “As such, we are among the top one percent of our industry,” the company founder explained.
The cosmetic expert has won many certificates and seals over the past years, which certify the quality and environmental-friendliness of the products – including among others the ISO norms on environmental and quality management. “However, EcoVadis addresses the matter in a much more detailed manner than the ISO norms,” remarked Kiepe. “One important point of the quality seal is for instance the social aspects. Job Bike and Job Ticket are just two such aspects. The areas working conditions and nutrition are also covered by the seal. For example, we have our own in-house chef, who conjures up a healthy, delicious meal every day, which all of our employees enjoy together. That has become part of the routine meanwhile.”
In addition to many efforts to increase the employee satisfaction, KHK also invests a lot of energy into reducing its own CO2 footprint. The entire production of KHK Gmbh has already been powered by electricity from renewable energy sources since 2017; the company is currently working on the label “climate neutral”. On top of that the firm is introducing a number of new product developments that are dedicated to the theme sustainability. For example, the line-up includes diverse new, solid care products that do without packaging material. “Among other things, we have developed a solid hand cream, which is purely available as a natural cosmetic variant. Our sun care stick is also new and we no longer offer any liquid alternatives in the meantime, because we are striving to replace conventional products with better, more environmentally-friendly alternatives,” explained Haverkamp. Kiepe added: “Waterless beauty is one of our keywords. Solid products save water and above all transport costs because their weight and volumes are reduced significantly as a result of refraining from using water. A further advantage is the fact that there is no need for (plastic) packaging.
Lipcare meets pioneering spirit
More sustainable ingredients and packaging are themes that KHK has been addressing for years. As well as manufacturing for the promotional products market, the company also produces for retail companies as well as for high-quality cosmetic brands as a contracting company. Here the customers from the promotional products industry profit from the developments within the cosmetics industry. The experts from Cologne have namely become a major player in the latter over the years. “At the start nobody in the cosmetic industry took us seriously,” recalled Kiepe. “We were first and foremost a promotional products manufacturer and then a cosmetic manufacturer, this has changed over the years. Whereas the share of products made for the promotional products industry was 80 to 90 percent up until four or five years ago, it had dropped down to just 32 percent by 2021. Instead the number of orders placed by the cosmetic industry increases constantly. Our present standing on the market came about last but not least as a result of our commitment in elaborate research projects, i.e. in collaboration with the Munich Technical University or Münster University.” One of the projects: A lip skin model for in vitro examinations. The three-year collaboration led to an artificial lip comprising of several layers of gel, which KHK can use to test the effect of new products on. All of the cosmetic specialist’s care products are developed in the company’s in-house laboratory. Here, the individual ingredients are carefully chosen so that they harmonise perfectly with each other.
The development process also includes cognitions about the impact that different ingredients have, as the chemist, Dr. Sivatharushan Sivanathan, stated: “Different substances penetrate different levels of the skin. The artificial lip developed at the Munich Technical University in collaboration with the Institute for Rheology, i.e. the behaviour of fluids, helps us evaluate precisely where the ingredients end up and the effect they have. Mineral oils and waxes – which we don’t implement at all – are ‘exogeneous’ in terms of their structure, can become more concentrated inside the body and possibly have a toxic effect. The body is on the other hand familiar with vegetable oils and waxes and so it can break them down into valuable components. And certain components, such as vitamins for instance, make their way into the metabolism through the lip. Since we produce cosmetics, our focus lies on skin care and thus on the local application.” Consideration of a possible intake via the blood (systematic exposure) and proof of the harmlessness are elements that make up part of each safety assessment, which means new recipes are already tested in detail during the development phase to literally speaking avoid risking a thick lip. “Such projects are a good way of understanding how research turns into a product,” added Haverkamp. “A further example is our green PE, a bio-plastic made from sugar cane, which can be injection moulded just like conventional plastics. Our research efforts are indispensable for such further developments.”
The appropriate product for everyone
Promotional Gift Award winners in 2022: The solid hand cream, Naked, completely does without a tube, bottle or other case and thus saves valuable resources.
Thanks to the company’s huge passion for scientific research and eagerness to constantly improve its own products, the cosmetic specialist can offer its customers a wide range of different care products, recipes and packaging materials today. In addition to the standard care stick with a push-up sleeve, lipcare sticks made from recycled or bio-based plastic, jars made of glass, (bio-based) plastic or aluminium as well as tins and sticks made from compostable cardboard are available at KHK. This enables an almost unlimited number of combination options. “Distributors can choose precisely what is important for their customers. Some place importance on a Fairtrade recipe, but opt for the classic plastic care stick, whilst another prefers a purely natural cosmetic formula in an FSC-certified cardboard case. We can offer the respective company the appropriate promotional products for every campaign,” outlined Haverkamp.
Whether own recipes, elaborate CI design or other special requirements – KHK’s all-in service makes this possible and lends the company a strong USP on the toughly competitive promotional products market. The experts can even deliver kosher and halal items. A rabbi from Antwerp travels to the company premises especially for this purpose to check the production processes, as Kiepe reported. “Even the coffee machine is checked, the boiler has to be heated by a flame – which is pretty laborious. The first time he came we really were surprised, but we even make things like this possible. We are always ready to jump into action for every extraordinary idea.”
From Hürth to all over the globe
Sun care with spf 30 in an eco-friendly pushup jar made from FSC certified cardboard – here colour coordinated to match its implementation at the Wacken Festival in 2022.
Indeed, the KHK team has to be ready for action too, because their order volume is expanding constantly. In the first two quarters of 2022 alone, the cosmetic manufacturer experienced 35 percent growth on the promotional products market. However, thanks to the new premises and machines, KHK is well-prepared for the growing demand. Alone the new boiler with a capacity of 850 kg for the production of the care mixtures enabled the cosmetic manufacturer to double its production capacity. This means that up to 150,000 lipcare sticks can be produced in just one batch. “This means we can execute every customer order easily from minimum volumes of 300 pieces through to quantities in the millions,” stated Haverkamp. At present, KHK manufactures around 10 million items a year and exports to 35 countries, the production capacity is approx. 23 million products – the new location leaves plenty of scope for further growth.
And the declared goal of Kiepe and his team is indeed to expand further. For example, one is currently working on the introduction of the first lipcare stick made from PCR – i.e. post-consumer recyclate in Hürth. The PCR material is made exclusively from the caps of drinking bottles, hence it originates from a single source and can thus be ideally recycled and turned back into granules again. Up until now, only post-industrial recyclate could be implemented due to technical reasons. The latter material originates from waste from the company’s own production. What’s more, the company is currently working on an exciting and promising research project that involves growing diverse plants to harvest their oil. Further projects, which include vertical farming or building an electric filling station, aim to make KHK more attractive as an employer and at the same time contribute more towards environmental production.
Of course, the main focus of the cosmetic experts is to continue developing new products with new, increasingly plastic-free packaging solutions. So, it is going to be interesting to see what else KHK comes up with at its new premises in Hürth. The team from Cologne can certainly guarantee one thing: They will always read every wish from their customer’s lips.
// Laura Müller
photos: Laura Müller, © WA Media (2); KHK (4)
