Entrepreneurs Ernesto Badía and Diego Fernández, specialists in the manufacture of hair coloring products with more than 15 years of experience, have set up the company Neocos Laboratorios to become Mercadona’s integrated suppliers of hair coloring products.
Badía and Fernández are joint administrators of Koswell, a hair cosmetics company created in 2008 and domiciled in Guadassuar (Valencia).
For the Mercadona project, Neocos Laboratories will open a factory in Algemesí (Valencia), which will involve an investment of 7 million euros in refurbishing the industrial warehouse and installing two production lines, as reported by the Juan Roig chain through a statement.
The facilities consist of 4,000 square meters and they will carry out the formulation, packaging and storage of the final product. For the start-up of this industrial project, Neocos Laboratories will create 35 jobs, including chemical engineers, industrial engineers, graduates in chemical sciences and graduates in pharmacy.
Mercadona’s current supplier of hair dyes is the Catalan company Grupo VMV.
Opening to new suppliers
The creation of this company responds to the , according to which the supermarket leader would look for professionals for each product to create ad hoc projects, instead of just looking for a large manufacturer for each product category.
The implementation of this project began a year ago, during which Neocos Laboratories and Mercadona have been defining the new line of hair color products with more than thirty shades.
In the process, they have had the suggestions and contributions of Mercadona’s bosses (customers), through more than 200 tests carried out at the Perfumery Co-innovation Center. Currently, some references are in the testing phase in stores in Valencia, specifically those with permanent color.
Ernesto Badía and Diego Fernández have degrees in chemical sciences, with “extensive business experience in the manufacture and development of hair coloring products for the professional sector,” according to Mercadona.