It’s been years since Gianni Proserpio, esteemed professor and pioneer of modern cosmetology, suggested the name Gale&Cosm, an abbreviation of Galenica & Cosmetica. In the company’s initial years, it concentrated on selling raw materials for compounding and cosmetics to pharmacies and laboratories and it was only later that it started to distribute them to the cosmetics industry, the latter of which would become the company’s core business. Led by Alfredo Radice who has been on the SICC (The Italian Society of Chemistry and Cosmetological Sciences) board of directors multiple times and is currently on the steering committee for Making Cosmetics, today Gale&Cosm is an established company that operates with success in both Italy and abroad.
To better serve customers of all sizes and coming from all parts of the world, in addition to their Milan-based headquarters, Gale&Cosm currently have two logistics centers in Milan, two representative branches in central Italy and a manufacturing plant in Tuscany dedicated to production of snail filtrate (also known colloquially as snail slime). The company is greatly appreciated for its quality of service and its ample assortment of products and some of its clients include the likes of: Manetti & Roberts, L’Erbolario, Pentamedica, Rottapharm Madaus, Istituto Ganassini, Kelemata, Alfaparf Group, Coty, Evelin Cosmetics, Enkos Development, Bybi, Smink Limited, and Amore Pacific.
While waiting to present its next noteworthy innovations, Alfredo Radice talks to us about the company’s history, cornerstones, and new challenges.
Dr. Radice, how did Gale&Cosm come about and what are its strengths?
The name of the company came from the abbreviation of the words Galenica e Cosmetica (Galenics and Cosmetics) and was suggested by Professor Gianni Proserpio as in the beginning, it concentrated on the distribution of raw materials for compounding and cosmetics to pharmacies and laboratories.
Over time, Gale&Cosm’s business has evolved and today, it is a distributor of raw materials for the cosmetic industry with its headquarters just outside Milan and presence on the Italian and European market. Its high-quality service is surely one of the company’s crowning glories. The speed of order request fulfillment, samples, the technical support for formulations and the team of sales specialists are all part of this philosophy of service that has allowed Gale&Cosm, through the years, to become a reference point in the cosmetics sector. In addition, our structure allows us to effectively serve both the international and the Italian market, where there are many third-party manufacturers of make-up and cosmetics operating all over the world.
And then there’s the ample assortment of raw materials. What type of ingredients do you have in your portfolio?
Our offerings are ample, organized, and continually being updated. Innovating is fundamental in all sectors but in cosmetics it is vital in order to be competitive and attract new customers. We have ingredients for the make-up industry, for cosmetics, for the well-being sector, for haircare, homecare, and recently, we’ve also started to explore the nutraceutical market with specialized raw materials.
Thanks to a well-established network of partners, renowned opinion leaders, and university research centers, we are able to constantly enrich our portfolio with innovative and safe ingredients to best be able to satisfy the needs and new trends in the world of beauty.
Besides distributing third-party raw materials, do you also have your own ingredient line brand?
Yes. Over time we’ve expanded our offerings, introducing our own brand of raw materials into the portfolio which includes functional emulsifiers, water dispersible oils and water-soluble ingredients from natural, eco-friendly sources, as well as other active ingredients (the complete range is available on the site www.galecosm.com). An ample and extensive range of offerings that perfectly mirrors our philosophy of attention to quality, variety, and versatility of ingredients present on the list.
Which services do you offer the cosmetics market?
Gale&Cosm sets itself up as a reliable partner with years of experience and a strong presence in the sector, able to support customers and distributors with a variety of services. Clearly, a lot depends on the needs and requests received from customers, but as a company, we’re able to provide: consultancy on international standards and regulations (Internal Regulatory Affairs), logistics and transport, technical training on-site and online, marketing and communication initiative studies to support launches and guide the growth and involvement of partners.
The internal laboratory gives us the ability to offer formulation service and support with or without raw materials, while customer care is dedicated to CRM, samples, and the coordination of offers, allowing us to respond to customer needs in a timely and targeted manner.
Do you have anything new and upcoming in the pipelines?
Our R&D Department was slowed down by the epidemic, like it was for everyone, but we’re back to being in the midst of research and for the trade shows this autumn, we’ll be presenting some new products that we’ll soon announce on our social media channels. Stay tuned!