CPL Aromas opens plant to make Colombia the regional fragrances hub

Tocancipa — The British firm CPL Aromas has opened a plant in Tocancipa municipality near Bogota with an investment of some $5 million, with which it aims to make Colombia the hub of the fragrance industry in Latin America, company sources told EFE.

“With this new plant covering some 5,000 sq. meters (54,000 sq. feet), we will serve markets from Mexico to Patagonia and expand sales abroad,” CPL Aromas Manager German Ronderos said.

CPL Aromas, considered the world’s largest company of its kind with production facilities in England, Hong Kong, Dubai and Spain, chose to set up shop in the Tocancipa free-trade zone, from where it will manage its regional operations.

In Colombia where it has been operating for 25 years, the British firm will headquarter Latin American fragrance production for perfumery, personal care, household products and an industrial version that could leap from the current 30 tons a month to 190 tons a month.

CPL Aromas currently markets its wares in Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala and El Salvador, and hopes to expand to Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and the Caribbean.

Ronderos said that to begin with, “next year the goal is to include Chile and Argentina or Bolivia.”

The company currently makes 100 percent of the fragrances with which it serves the growing regional demand, with raw materials imported from India, China and Brazil, among other countries.

The new plant, which employs 60 workers, was designed to measure up to the needs of the industry, with offices, a production facility and a testing center for trying out the fragrances and seeing how they function in spaces with controlled temperatures that replicate real environments.

“The opening of the CPL Aromas plant adds further impetus to the program of Bogota and its province of Cundinamarca to encourage the development of businesses with an export potential in such sectors as cosmetics, which has been identified as one of the more likely to attract investment to the region,” said the executive director of Invest in Bogota, Juan Gabriel Perez.

For his part, Nick Pickthall, one of the company owners, said that following the inauguration, “employees from Tocancipa and its surroundings will increase by 20 percent.”

He said the idea is to be “more competitive” and increase the participation of “successful businesses” in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Central America.

The new CPL Aromas plant will use energy-generating systems with more than 280 solar panels that will save as much as 30 percent in energy consumption, with 100 percent of the lighting done with environmentally friendly, battery-powered LED lights, plus a system for collecting rainwater. EFE-EPA cpy/cd