The company began as a production partner for Lancôme. During the 1980s, the Indonesian government imposed an import policy that was so stringent that many foreign consumer-goods producers were obliged to establish partnerships with local manufacturers if they wanted to keep selling their products in Indonesia. This was the golden era for many of the local consumer-goods manufacturers, including Cedefindo, but it did not last for long. At the beginning of the 1990s the government changed the regulations, and allowed foreign consumer-goods brands to import finished products directly. Fortunately, by this time we had already diversified our client portfolio and became an independent contract manufacturer.

Many cosmetics companies find it difficult to invest in full scale manufacturing facilities and so our ability to provide comprehensive cosmetic production capabilities is highly sought after.

To ensure continued growth, we have revamped our strategy to focus on offering not only manufacturing facilities but to also provide a service to our clients. For example, we now use our expertise to offer guidance to clients wanting to produce new products for brands based on their needs and formulations and avoid being passive by simply taking on the role of manufacturer. Moreover, we are restructuring and changing our culture and marketing approach to be a service oriented company. We also initiated our new tag line ‘dedicated to you’ as we are dedicating ourselves to our client’s success, as this will be our success. We have introduced a host of integrated services such as packaging and raw material procurement, which put us on the right path to being a fully-fledged service company. We are therefore actively finding new clients and must concentrate on changing our business culture to be business development focused.

Indonesia does not have a globally established reputation as a quality cosmetics producer and internationally produced products are often preferred for emotional as opposed to rational reasons. Unfortunately, this preference for international brands is often exhibited amongst domestic consumers as well. For decorative cosmetics, consumers purchase based on colour preference whereas for skin care people are very loyal and particular about their purchases, which can make it difficult to change their pre-existing partiality towards certain products.

We encourage our local clients to use Indonesian heritage ingredients, as going head to head with established international brands in the same product category can be a big challenge.

At exhibitions we have seen that buyers are not interested in our decorative products but are instead drawn to products that offer something different such as body scrub with langsat, a natural ingredient that is indigenous to Indonesia. When clients who want to invest in the sector approach us to create a new brand, we always encourage them to go into Indonesian heritage products as it provides uniqueness that can be a competitive advantage.

At this moment, local products are competing against imported ones that are presently subject to import duties. Tariffs on products coming from South East Asia will be removed with the 2015 ASEAN One Market, and this may prove to be another challenge in the future.

We have received many visitors from foreign cosmetics companies to see where we can find synergies. We welcome these types of enquiries. As this company has been recently reborn we are interested in working with more established companies that have a larger network for joint ventures as we are looking for new business platforms to explore.

We welcome new companies to the market; Japanese and Korean companies for example are entering Indonesia in a big way to access Indonesia and the ASEAN for cosmetics.

Prospective foreign partners and clients should understand that it is our vision to be a one-stop shop for branded companies for cosmetics production, offering services that range from product registration to formula development. In keeping with this goal, we also hope to be able to take on pilot projects in the testing phase for major brands and are striving to become a trusted partner in this field.

Cedefindo is a leading personal care and cosmetics producer, and has considerable experience in manufacturing other products such as aerosols and herbal ointments. Cosmetics brands looking to enter Indonesia and expand their reach within a promising market need not look further than Cedefindo.