36 SITE VISIT Tim Probert – Editor, Personal Care Global
Editor Tim Probert travels to Berlin, Germany to visit CLR, one of the world’s most respected companies in the personal care industry, to find out more about this proudly independent and science-first maker of cosmetic actives
Ninety-nine not out
CLR is planning a party. Next year, the Berlin company will celebrate its 100th anniversary. It has good reason to celebrate in style.
From humble beginnings, CLR (Chemisches Laboratorium Dr. Kurt Richter) has become one of the world’s most successful and respected manufacturer of personal care active ingredients. The past 99 years have, of course, seen unimaginable change but the company remains proudly independent and family owned as ever. In many ways, CLR is typical of the
Mittelstand - the largely family-owned flank of German businesses that stand for quality, reliability and innovation - which are considered by many to be the backbone of the country’s economy. CLR, which is located around 30 minutes
by car south of historic Potsdamer Platz, was founded in 1926 by Dr. Kurt Richter and his business partner Dr. J. Altpeter. Very little is known about Dr. Altpeter, other
PERSONAL CARE March 2025
than he departed CLR within two years to leave Dr. Richter as the sole owner. In those early years, CLR was a trader of industrial chemicals. It was not until the 1950s that CLR began to focus on the manufacture of biologically active cosmetic ingredients. Details are a little sketchy, but it seems CLR’s
first contact with the cosmetics sector was via the selling of a particular emulsifier in its chemicals portfolio. In the early 1950s, CLR – by then owned
by a Mrs Frieda Vogel and Dr. Peter Assman – spotted an opportunity to develop their own cosmetic ingredients. CLR’s early ventures included anti-dandruff
concoctions that mixed sulphur-containing amino acids. Yet these early formulations lacked a strong
evidence base, so CLR collaborated with the Free University of Berlin, which was established with American support in 1948 in what was then West Berlin, to dig deeper into cosmetic science.
Tasked with finding active ingredients with
proven efficacy, the research collab generated in vivo data that showed a bovine placenta extract increased the oxygen uptake of human skin. The discovery was little short of
revolutionary at a time when the cosmetics industry comprised little more than humble lipstick and makeup. “It was probably the first active ingredient
with scientific data on the cosmetics market,” says CLR chief executive and 100% shareholder Dr. Stefan Borchert. “That was a big success. In Japan, we got the quasi-drug approval, and the extract was filled into ampules and sold.” This, in the early 1950s, was around the
time Stefan’s father, Günther, joined CLR as a laboratory chemist. Günther Borchert continued CLR’s work
with the Free University of Berlin. He struck up a close working partnership with Dr. Martin Kludas of the University, and they jointly filed
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