DE 
Interview with Brigitte Closs-Gonthier, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of R&D, Quality and Communication, SILAB
Brigitte Closs-Gonthier
Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of R&D, Quality and Communication, SILAB
SILAB is celebrating its 40-year anniversary this year. How did it all start?
SILAB is an independent French company that was founded by Jean Paufique in 1984 in Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze region, France).
At the beginning, the company was settled in a hangar and the mission of the initial small team was to enhance the value of animal blood for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. As of 1991 however, the switch was made from animal to vegetal raw materials, and it was decided to only focus on cosmetics. By that time, we developed the first plant-origin tensor of the cosmetic industry, which quickly became a success. A few years later, the company moved to news premises in Saint-Viance, which is still the current location site of SILAB.
Today, SILAB gathers more than 400 employees and achieves €62m of sales, 60% of which coming from exports. This international reach is ensured thanks to a close collaboration with a network of exclusive, independent distributors and our six subsidiaries based in important markets (United States, South Korea, China, Brazil, Singapore and Japan).
Faithfull to our strategy of independence, we produce 100% of our natural active ingredients on our unique site: 4 independent production units are dedicated to active ingredients (including one spray-drying production unit for preservative-free active ingredients in powder) and 1 unit to biotechnological raw materials to secure the supply of unicellular organisms. Thanks to our in vitro laboratories (study of molecular and tissue biology), and our in vivolaboratory (clinical evaluations on volunteers), we demonstrate the cosmetic efficacy of these active ingredients through robust protocols, while guaranteeing their safety.
Integrating all the tools and skills in-house is a key factor of growth: it gives us our strength and our ability to look ahead and adapt to respond rapidly to market expectations.
According to you, what are the other key factors that enabled the rapid and steady growth of the company over the years?
When creating SILAB, Jean Paufique was guided by strong convictions that have made the success of the company and that remain today at the heart of its development.
First, SILAB is a company with values. Our founding values of Independence, Excellence and Quality are a solid basis. We particularly care for nature, which is a source of inspiration and our exclusive resource of raw materials. We are also guided by strong sustainable principles, and we are striving toward employee’s well-being as demonstrated through our CSR program named Actively Caring.
In addition, in my opinion, what really differentiates us is our innovation capacity, made possible by independent investment choices. As a reminder, 20% of investments is dedicated to innovation and ¼ of the staff is dedicated to Research. This leads to the constant acquisition of new skills and specific tools.
In the 1990s, understanding molecular biology was a key approach. In these years, SILAB integrated a cell culture laboratory and another one for clinical studies.
In the 2000s, we started to develop our own 3D skin models. It was also the rise of high-resolution imaging, with the acquisition for us of the confocal microscopy, high throughput technologies and the creation of a data science unit.
In the 2010s, omics science emerged. SILAB developed optical biopsies and opened two additional laboratories: one for biophysics and one for immunology. The SILAB Softcare department was also created in 2015, with the aim of providing solutions for compromised skin (atopic, acneic, sensitive and diabetic skins, etc.). During these years, SILAB also got interested in biotechnologies, because of their powerful innovation potential. We thus decided to integrate all stages in-house, from the research phase to the industrialization of microorganisms, to be able to offer ever more innovative biotechnological solutions, responding to today’s key security issues, traceability, and respect for the environment (sustainability of supplies).
Currently, scientific research is focusing on regenerative science. As a forerunner, SILAB has been developing complexified 3D skin models, and has worked on the interconnectivity of the vascular, cutaneous and immune systems. The company also uses artificial intelligence.
As a result, for 4 decades, SILAB has built a robust cutaneous expertise and has been guided by a strong strategy of anticipation and audacious choices aimed at continually surprising the market.
SILAB adapted its governance in January 2023, was it a turning point?
Indeed, since January 2023, SILAB has become a limited company with a management board and a supervisory board, instead of a limited company with a board of directors. With the determination to guarantee the company's durability, Mr. Paufique has decided to keep the model which has proved its worth and to which he is particularly attached and has chosen to entrust the operational management of the company to the members of the former management committee, including myself. I have the honor of chairing this management board.
Even though it might have been seen as a big change, we were absolutely not willing to make it a turning point. It was a way for all of us to guarantee continuity instead, whether in terms of strategic choices or shared values.
To illustrate this continuity, let’s take the example of one of our next major projects. As part of our Mastering Natural program, we are relying on our botanical and analytical expertise to select the best of plants, with a constant objective of preserving plant heritage and biodiversity. With this in mind, we recently bought six hectares of land close to our facilities to be used as an ‘agriculture center’. The idea is to grow and study certain botanical species with the ultimate objective of further mastering our supplies (relocate, close collaboration with growers, etc.).
SILAB’s desire is therefore to keep focusing on the strategic axes that have made it a success since its creation, by offering efficient, natural and innovative solutions to continuously surprise our customers, while staying true to our values and our ethical principles.
