Jose Luis Ruiz, CEO, Alcome Europa
The world of Jose Luis Ruiz, the CEO of Alcome Europa smells nice. In fact very nice. How else would you define a world full of cedar wood, jasmine, and lavender etal? With an experience of 30 years in the perfume business, Ruiz can make out one note from the other with uncanny perfection ? the woody floral from the aromatic greens, the basil from the mint? Now that, definitely, calls for some olfactory precision. His skills only start here, his real passion lies in creating fragrances ? be it the contemporary masculine or the young feminine ones.
Ruiz visited India for a completely different reason though. Having bagged an order worth 12.5 million euros from various retail chains in Europe, the 55-year-old is planning to set up a plant at the Special Economic Zone in Noida. ?The plant should be ready by the end of this year and the production capacity of four lakh bottles per day will probably be the highest in the world,? Ruiz says. He further adds that 30% of the plant?s total production capacity would be for domestic consumption.
Wondering why India was chosen to set up the Rs 150 crore plant? Ruiz believes the economy of scale comes into play here: the fragrances will be imported from Grasse, France and blended and bottled in Uttar Pradesh before being exported.
However, the achievement did not come easily, as the claim stands, for this third largest perfume manufacturing company in the world. It took Ruiz two full years to make way for Alcome. ?One needs to understand the nature of a particular market before venturing into it. Spain and Portugal prefer fresh fragrances; Central Europe has a fondness for floral ones and the North favours spicy and hot scents. Moreover Europe also happens to be a traditional market. So, it was important to feel its pulse and understand their expectations,? explains Ruiz. So what does Europe really want? ?Europeans have a strong tradition of wearing scents. And they are also more price-conscious than others. In 2006, direct sales remained the dominant retail channel for fragrances, accounting for a whopping 60% of the sector value! In Eastern Europe mass fragrances are the way to go but in Western Europe premium fragrances are driving the growth,? says Ruiz. Alcome is therefore launching itself on the same ground: targeting the value-for-money products.
According to Euromonitor?s report, European fragrance sales have grown beyond expectations and are fuelling a strong global market, otherwise held back by the economic slump in the USA. ?The value of the global market rose by 6% to $30.6 billion in 2006, Western Europe recorded 3.5% growth and Eastern Europe penned 13%,? adds Ruiz. The future looks even more optimistic to him. ?A growth of 3% year-on-year can be easily predicted for the global market. And it will undoubtedly sustain itself until 2011. That is without taking inflation into consideration,? he says. The brand has also entered into agreement with a celebrity American brand for a business of $95 million for manufacturing and distribution of its products. That?s called smelling out the right move.
