New India fragrance hub to strengthen Unilever’s global capabilities

Fragrance plays an important part in improving the consumer experience and performance of common items such as shampoos, body washes, deodorants, and laundry detergent. It has been demonstrated to increase product desirability, preference, and repeat purchase.

The establishment of a new Unilever scent House (UFH) hub in India represents a substantial expansion of our global innovation capabilities, bringing scent design, development, and assessment closer to one of the world's fastest expanding consumer markets.

This is the latest step in Unilever's €100 million global investment to improve in-house, digitally enabled fragrance production capabilities, accelerating innovation and enabling premiumisation throughout the portfolio.

The new lab strengthens India's position not only as a key high-growth market, but also as a worldwide R&D hub, allowing Unilever to develop sensorially superior goods for both local and global customers.

India is one of the world's most dynamic economies, with constantly changing consumer preferences and rising demand for premium products and experiences. The new lab will transform these ideas into premium innovations that scale, resulting in sensory superiority and Desire at Scale across our local and worldwide brands.

"Fragrance is one of the most powerful ways we create desire for our brands," says Jane Maciver, the new head of Unilever Fragrance House. "It moulds first impressions, influences product preferences, and transforms mundane routines into unforgettable experiences.

"The new India hub enhances our ability to integrate science, creativity, and digital technology to create scents that are locally relevant, globally scalable, and developed more quickly than ever before. It's a significant step toward developing the technologies that will allow Unilever to provide Desire at Scale."

Combining AI, neuroscience, and insights to develop better things faster

The 200-square-meter lab is a fully integrated fragrance production, application, and assessment facility that includes unique creation software, real-time evaluation data recording, and advanced compounding technology. The hub, located at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Powai in Mumbai, provides chances for close collaboration with academia in fields such as science, technology, and digital-first scent innovation.

It will allow teams to design, test, and enhance fragrances from start to finish, while also collaborating seamlessly with other Unilever fragrance hubs across the world. The specific evaluation facilities allow them to recreate local market conditions in real time, ensuring that our scents fit local customer expectations.

The new capability enables Unilever teams to design and analyse fragrances more quickly, allowing for the introduction of new products in response to changing customer tastes.

It allows scent, formulation, and consumer intelligence to be produced collaboratively, resulting in products that are more distinctive, appealing, and memorable to customers.

While strategic partnerships with external fragrance houses remain important, in-house capabilities improve agility and speed while also providing us more control over design, performance, and individuality. It also allows us to merge technology and knowledge in ways that were not previously feasible.

Our professional teams will apply neuroscience methodologies to better understand how fragrances affect emotional wellbeing, such as a person's mood or confidence. With this insight, we'll combine AI, digital modelling, robotics, and real-time data analytics to accelerate scent development.

"India is one of the most exciting growth markets in the world, with rapidly evolving consumer tastes and growing demand for premium fragrance experiences," says Vibhav Sanzgiri, Chief R&D Officer, India. "This new capability helps us stay closer to our consumers, move faster from insight to innovation and create fragrances that make our brands more distinctive, desirable and relevant."

The India hub is part of Unilever's developing global fragrance network, which aims to help the company generate more appealing goods, expedite innovation, and drive premium growth.

Source: Unilever