Interview with Mr. Davide Bollati, Chairman and Owner of Davines Group, who considers sustainability to be the key for a long-lasting and successful business, respectful of the planet and of its inhabitants
“How do we begin to grow a different future now? We are committed to taking climate action by deeply integrating beauty and regenerative organic agriculture to heal our planet’s soil,” says Mr. Davide Bollati, Chairman of Davines Group.
Founded in Parma, Italy in 1983 by the Bollati Family, Davines Group started as a research laboratory, producing high-end hair and skin care products for renowned cosmetics companies worldwide.
“After a decade of honing our expertise, we began creating our own brand of Davines hair care products exclusively for salons, and in 1996 founded [ comfort zone ] skin care for premier day and destination Spas. Our skin care offer was further expanded in 2012 when we launched the / skin regimen / focused on skin longevity,” Davide said.
“In 2016 we became a certified B Corp and today we have an international presence in more than 90 countries with a multicultural staff. In addition to our headquarters – the Davines Group Village in Parma – we have offices in New York, London, Paris, Mexico City, Deventer (Netherlands), Hong Kong, Shanghai and we recently inaugurated our Davines office in Düsseldorf”. In 2023 the Davines Group closed the year with a consolidated turnover of more than 263 million euros, up 14% compared to 2022.”
Mr. Davide Bollati graduated in Pharmacy with a Master’s degree in Cosmetic Sciences at Farleigh Dickinson University in the United States. In 1992, after gaining experience with international companies in the cosmetics sector, he joined the Davines Group. Today he leads the company with a strong commitment to ethics and sustainability, product innovation and international business growth.
His vision of Sustainable Beauty – a combination of cutting-edge chemistry and respect for the environment and society, successfully led the Group to become a B Corporation in 2016. The Group recently obtained its second B Corp recertification, in December 2023, with a remarkable score of 123.5. This score is higher than the average scores recorded in last year’s certifications, which globally stand at 94.7 and do not exceed 93.8 points in the beauty sector.
Key and distinctive traits of the Davines Group approach are meticulous attention to quality, the search for beauty and excellence, a typical ‘made in Italy’ taste and culture, global reach,and most of all the company’s inspiring core values, which put people, planet, and community at the heart of everything.
Davide explained that “There cannot be Beauty without Sustainability; these are the two guiding concepts for each of our projects – from formulation to design, to ethics and customers.”
SpaChina interviewed him, to learn more about “Davines Group World”.
In 2018, the Davines Group Village opened, and the “New blooming” of the “Carta Etica” was unveiled. Could you tell us more about Carta Etica?
Our first Carta Etica was drafted in 2005 by Davines Group’s employees with the contribution of a philosopher and it contained proposals for ethical behavior at work to guarantee a better quality of life for all. This document was the starting point to share our value system, which inspired – and still inspires – our daily choices. By 2018 our Group had become bigger and many people had joined us, brining their own values, vision and culture. We thus decided to draft a “New Blooming” of our Carta Etica, which we consider an evolution of the previous one and a concrete expression of the DNA of our company.
In the headquarters of our company, you can see our employees enjoying gourmet food and beverages provided by the Michelin-quality cafeteria while they work. They have the freedom to choose any space within the company’s premises, indoors or outdoors, to work, and they often participate in various sports and activities organized by the company, maintaining a good mental state. This enables them to possess a strong sense of creativity and enthusiasm for work, viewing work as a meaningful part of their daily lives. Personally, I am someone who enjoys good food, and I hope my employees can also eat well every day and live a fulfilling life.
Could you tell us more about Davines Group Village and its architectural concept?
The Davines Group Village, inaugurated in 2018, is our headquarters, just outside of Parma. The architectural project was designed by Matteo Thun and Luca Colombo at MTLC. It demonstrates our company values: beauty, sustainability and well-being.
Over an area of 77,000 square meters, the building complex covers about 11,000 square meters and includes spaces dedicated to offices, training, the Research and Innovation laboratory, production plant and warehouse. Developed with the starting point of the concept of “home,” the structure of the Village reinterprets the archetypes of traditional Italian houses in a contemporary way, emphasizing our family roots.
The beating heart of corporate life is a large glass structure located in the center of the complex: a luminous “greenhouse” distinguished by modern and light architecture. This is a co-working space, home to the company bistro and restaurant.
The soul of Davines Group is expressed through its profound value component. The virtuous architectural project that has materialized is its emblem; focuses on the well-being of those who work here and wants to represent a place where ethics and aesthetics coexist in harmonious balance.
The green areas of the Davines Group Village were designed by del Buono Gazerwitz landscape architecture. Among them, the most important is the Scientific Garden, our open-air lab, surrounded by an Arboretum, a selection of plants from all over the world representing our international community so that the cultural richness and diversity of Davines Group can be symbolically displayed in the Village. Nature inspires our scientific research as well as facilitates the inner research as well, offering the possibility of deep contact with nature and a feeling of well-being.
We also welcome visitors from all over, allowing them to resonate with our vision of “Sustainable Beauty” by understanding our commitment to social responsibility. Even if it’s just a small impact on them, it contributes to the well-being of the planet and humanity.
You mentioned that the Scientific Garden is an open-air lab. What is it for and how is it integrated into your [ comfort zone ] R&I activities?
The Scientific Garden is an area of 3,000 m² and a diameter of about 60 meters with different botanical categories: the Medical Garden, the Garden of Aromas, the Garden of Colors and the Garden of Perfumes. It is right in front of our R&I laboratory to inspire our researchers in developing new effective and sustainable formulas and also includes a Greenhouse, designed and built in England in order to grow species unsuitable for the Emilian climate but functional for laboratory research.
Among our scientists, Dr. Simon Jackson, Head of Botanical Research, leverages his 30 years of experience to select the plants which can be more beneficial for our innovations and supports therefore both the internal R&D managed by Eve Merinville and the cultivation according to the regenerative organic agriculture principles guided by Dario Fornara, the EROC Research Director.
The most important incarnation of this approach is our Sublime Skin Serum, the natural-filler solution proposed by [ comfort zone ] and a best seller in all our markets, which includes the extract of Achillea Millefolium from regenerative organic agriculture, clinically proven to boost collagen production by +35%* (*In vitro test after 48 hours on Fibroblasts). The potency of this botanical ingredient is also in the Sublime Skin facial, extremely popular for its lift and firm effect.
What is the latest project for Davines hair care, and could you share the most recommended products to our readers?
We feel sustainability, performance and care of the body and the hair is a responsibility. We are committed to do our best, in research and innovation, to find solutions to create effective formulations and quality products from natural ingredients.
Last year we decided upon an increasing focus on scalp and on its microbiome health, which stems from a growing understanding of the intricate and profound relationship between the scalp’s microbiota and overall hair health. With our haircare brand Davines we’ve been at the forefront of this movement, introducing innovative solutions like the Microbiotic booster in 2021 as an active ingredient part of our Elevating – family of products dedicated to scalp – inside the Naturaltech line. Furthermore, we have integrated advanced strategies into our Microbiotic Booster, such as the inclusion of postbiotics. Derived from bacterial fermentation, postbiotics enhance the skin barrier’s integrity, providing relief from common scalp issues and fortifying protection against external aggressors.
In 2021 we founded, in partnership with Rodale Institute, the EROC (European Regenerative Organic Center) in front of the Davines Group Village in Parma, which is the first European Hub for research and training on regenerative organic agriculture.
This initiative reflects our commitment to investing in the study of new ingredients cultivated according to practices that positively impact soil health.
Moreover, we will continue to work on safeguarding biodiversity and researching new ingredients for our supply chain. Our goal is to incorporate 100 ingredients from regenerative organic agriculture into the formulas of our products, skincare and haircare, within the next 10 years.
Are there any other sustainable contributions in which Davines Group has been involved?
We have been committed to sustainability for over 16 years with growing, increasingly holistic and integrated engagement, further evidenced by the certification as a B Corp company in 2016. We recently obtained our second B Corp recertification with a score of 123.5, significantly higher than the average in our industry in 2023, which did not exceed 93.8 points.
Our approach to sustainability derives from our purpose: to do our best for the world, creating good life for all, through beauty, ethics and sustainability. This commitment is carried out through three main areas of interest: environment, society, and governance. With specific regard to the environment, our strategy is based on four key pillars which guide our choices: decarbonization, circularity, biodiversity and we recently added water.
For instance, in 2022, we signed our commitment with the Science Based Targets initiative, with the goal of achieving Net Zero emissions no later than 2050. And in 2023, for the second consecutive year, thanks to our collaboration with Plastic Bank, we removed an equivalent amount of plastic from the environment for every plastic-packaged product we introduce to the market.
As per the incoming projects, we will build an agrivoltaic system in EROC to combine regenerative agriculture production and power generation by photovoltaics on the same land. At the same time, we’ll be able to quantify how soil quality and plant quality will be affected by the presence of solar panels and their effects on the agroecosystem microclimate.
How do you see the future of B Corps in the industry?
Our hope is that we’ll see, in the next years, a growth of B Corps not only in the beauty industry but also in other business sectors.
We are aware that pursuing sustainability is often not the easiest choice and that this may discourage many companies. However, today it is the only possible choice to ensure a future for the next generations in an increasingly challenging global and social context.
Our business approach with a purpose is extremely appealing for our professional partners and we see a positive trend also from consumers. The search is of course for efficacy, but we consider our eco-design a key element in the conscious selections and preferences.
As a B Corp, we strongly believe in cooperation over competition, and for this reason, in January 2022, we were among the founders of the B Corp Beauty Coalition, which now includes almost 90 companies internationally. The aim of this coalition is to promote and improve sustainable standards through the sharing of know-how and best practices within the beauty industry.
We have no other choice but to do our best to ensure the transition to a regenerative economic model. However, long-lasting, and sustainable positive change can only occur when an ever-increasing number of public and private entities, as well as individual citizens, collaborate towards a common goal. In my opinion, this willingness and desire to collaborate are essential for anyone looking to be a part of this change.
In recent years, the global probiotics market has steadily grown, with the market size in 2021 estimated at $61.1 billion, according to data from Markets and Markets. The global probiotics market is projected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3% from 2021 to 2026, reaching $91.1 billion by 2026.
Competition in the probiotics sector is primarily concentrated in the three major regions of Asia, North America, and Europe. Data from the Probiotics Branch of the China Food Science and Technology Society shows that the Asia-Pacific region has the highest probiotics consumption globally, accounting for approximately 44.4%, surpassing Europe (23.5%) and North America (17.8%). This highlights the thriving development of the probiotics industry in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to data from the China Health Care Association, the overall market size of probiotic products in China was approximately ¥87.98 billion in 2020. International data from Euromonitor indicates that the current consumption market size of probiotics in China has surpassed Italy, ranking second globally. Moreover, it continues to grow rapidly at an annual rate of 11-12%, revealing significant market potential against the backdrop of policy support and industry regulation.
Founded in 2003, Ketao Biotechnology initially focused on the trade of food additives. In 2010, they acquired the company, and Dr. Sun Tiansong, a Ph.D. supervisor and professor at Inner Mongolia Agricultural University’s School of Food Science and Engineering. Dr. Sun, known as the “Pioneer of Chinese Probiotics,” had a strong belief in the market for compounded food additives and possessed unique resources, including his spouse, Zhang Heping.
In establishing the probiotic strain resource library, Ketao Biotechnology rapidly built the largest lactic acid bacteria strain resource library in Asia. Currently, the company holds 56 invention patents related to probiotics, including over 20,000 strains of lactic acid bacteria (including probiotics), with 68 strains already industrialized.
In a previous interview, Ketao Biotechnology stated, “High-quality strains are very precious and constitute our most significant asset, embodying the efforts of scientists. Currently, Ketao Biotechnology has five star strains, which are our flagship ‘Chinese strains’.”
As China’s probiotics industry enters a rapid development phase, Ketao Biotechnology’s revenue from edible probiotic products has maintained a high growth rate in recent years. The company’s research and development investment reached ¥27.15 million in 2021, accounting for 7.45% of its revenue. The compound annual growth rate from 2017 to 2020 was 119.85%, with a year-on-year growth of 123.01% in the first half of 2021. The company achieved an operating income of approximately ¥3.65 billion in 2021. Notably, Ketao Biotechnology’s major customer is Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd. In 2020, business with Yili accounted for 73.43% of the company’s revenue.
Perhaps, Ketao Biotechnology’s current business composition and product layout have not yet allowed it to truly break the dominance of foreign capital in the upstream probiotics market. Nevertheless, we hope that Ketao Biotechnology can uphold the facade of “Chinese strains”, enabling more Chinese people to use probiotics that are better suited for their needs.
