Oriflame International, the Swedish cosmetics manufacturing and marketing company, opened its global technical centre at Bray business park in Co Wicklow yesterday.
The centre will employ 50 people in an international facility for research and development, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, product registration, and engineering support. No investment figure was revealed for the centre.
Oriflame's opening of its technical centre in Bray comes just months after its decision to close its manufacturing facility in Sandyford, Co Dublin. That decision was attributed to western European manufacturing costs.
However, it said it would keep the technical expertise which was built up in the Republic and centre all of its technical and innovation support in Ireland. Technical staff who worked at Sandyford have been retrained at Bray, it said.
Oriflame was established in 1967 and currently has an annual turnover of €500 million (£393.5 million). It manufactures a full range of cosmetic products in around 60 countries worldwide. Its main products include skin care, colour cosmetics and fragrances. The company said it was developing a programme of new products, which would be carried out in Bray.
