JAFRA® Cosmetics Opens New Manufacturing Facility

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

JAFRA® Cosmetics International, Inc. and parent company Vorwerk & Co KG, leaders in direct sales, today announced the opening of a new $30 million state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Querétaro, Mexico.

Located in Parque Industrial Querétaro, a premier master-planned industrial park in central Mexico, the 23-acre complex is now JAFRA’s lead manufacturing facility, employing 800 people and supplying its worldwide sales and operations in 17 countries.

Featuring green technologies and a most modern infrastructure, the 254,000-square-foot plant complies with the most stringent standards for cosmetics production. The new JAFRA facility is 50% larger than its previous plant and can accommodate annual production of up to 200 million units.

Designed to streamline production and generate manufacturing efficiencies – while maintaining outstanding product quality – the new Querétaro center and the adjacent land also allow for significant growth over many decades.

“This world-class manufacturing facility enables us to meet the growing demand for our existing products and we have the added flexibility and capability of easily handling production of future product lines,” said Dr. Friedrich Kroos, JAFRA president and chief executive officer. “At JAFRA, we’re committed to excellence in quality, service levels and costs. Innovation is built into every phase of our business and the Querétaro manufacturing center is a direct reflection of this philosophy.”

Walter Muyres, managing partner and executive board member, the Vorwerk Group, agrees, “We strongly believe in the future of JAFRA. This significant capital project investment supports our planned course of expansion and it will accommodate our anticipated growth for decades.”

Construction of the JAFRA complex took less than a year and was completed within budget. JAFRA joins dozens of multinational companies that have chosen to build production centers in Querétaro. Strategically located in the heart of Mexico, just 120 miles north of Mexico City, Querétaro offers many advantages, including the access to a large, stable and experienced labor force as well as close proximity to easy transportation.

The Querétaro plant is ideally suited to JAFRA’s needs both as a central location for supply chain activities and as a centralized facility for worldwide product supply. JAFRA’s own research and development team remains headquartered in Westlake Village, California, where products are formulated, researched and tested in conjunction with laboratories located in the U.S., France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

About JAFRA

JAFRA was founded in 1956 by Jan and Frank Day in Malibu, California, and has been a member of the Vorwerk group since 2004. JAFRA has approximately 558,000 Independent Consultants worldwide and is one of the world’s leading producers of cosmetics today. The product portfolio encompasses skin, body care and spa products, color cosmetics and fragrances, all of which are manufactured from superior raw materials using state-of-the-art technology. JAFRA products are sold in 17 countries in Latin America, North America, Europe and, as of this year, JAFRA is stepping into Asia. JAFRA is headquartered in Westlake Village, California, and in 2009 generated sales in excess of half a billion US dollars. JAFRA is also a proud member of the Direct Selling Association.

Established in 1883, Vorwerk & Co. KG is a family enterprise. The holding company has its headquarters in Wuppertal, Germany. Vorwerk’s core business is the direct selling of quality products. Vorwerk now operates in 59 countries (2009) and generated business volume worth 3.58 billion US dollars in 2009, making the corporation one of the largest direct selling companies in the world.

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