38 SITE VISIT Stefan himself is a chemist, having joined
the company in 1997 after being a postdoc at Frankfurt University. “My father was always asking: will you
come to CLR, or will you stay at university? I actually wanted to stay at the university. I wanted to become a professor!” Things turned out rather differently. Within
three years of joining, Stefan became CEO in 2000, later becoming the sole shareholder in 2012 when Günther passed away. Under his ownership, CLR has recorded
impressive growth. Financial details are kept very closely guarded, but the company has more than doubled its head count from less than 50 to 120. CLR’s physical footprint has also grown.
In 2019, the company moved its global headquarters to its around 14,000 square metres facility at its Marienfelde headquarters, which include production, laboratory, in-house logistics and administration. Abroad, CLR has opened offices in France,
and the United States, has its own sales people based in China, Singapore and Europe, and has dozens of distributors around the world.
CLR has also invested in reducing its carbon
footprint. Thanks to the power generated from three solar PV systems on its Berlin buildings, CLR is able to produce approximately 30-40% of its electricity consumption on average, and up to 50% on peak days. Any excess energy generated that is
not used is fed into the Berlin power grid, contributing to the sustainable local energy supply.
The energy CLR feeds into the grid each
year is equivalent to the annual consumption of more than five million LED streetlights. The expansion of CLR’s facilities shows no
signs of slowing down. In 2021, CLR acquired a 7,000 square-metre property literally around the corner from its Marienfelde site, which is being converted into a second production facility.
This second facility is due for completion
this year. In addition, CLR has increased its warehouse capacity with a new rental facility in Marienfelde.
A signpost, not a weathervane Also showing no sign of slowing down is Stefan Borchert. Stefan turns 60 this month but he has absolutely no plans to retire. Indeed, he is a hands-on figure who invokes
his expertise in cosmetic science to make the final decision on which product development ideas CLR ultimately take to market. In charge of product development are R&D
director Dr. Heiko Prade and Dutchman Harald van der Hoeven, who joined the company in 2006 and was R&D director before Heiko. In his current role as director of product design and development, Harald and his team must combine their traditional scientific background with consumer psychology. Developing a new cosmetic ingredient can
take two years or more, during which time new trends can emerge, and tastes can change. CLR is less concerned than others, perhaps,
PERSONAL CARE March 2025
“CLR is all about active ingredients that really make a difference for consumers. We don’t jump on every train with a buzzword”
about fluctuating market demands. They have a scientific reputation to uphold, and they prefer to be a signpost than a weathervane. “We’re not driven by trends, we’re driven by
consumer needs,” says van der Hoeven. “We are sensitive to trends, and we like our
products to be appealing to our customers… but CLR is all about making active ingredients that really make a difference for consumers. We don’t jump on every train with a buzzword.” CLR runs five or six product development
projects, usually skin care projects, simultaneously. Trial and error will see the majority of these fall by the wayside, with ultimately one product a year released on the market. Sometimes, CLR’s new products are driven
from the top-down, i.e. targeting a specific application like sensitive skin, skin barrier and so on, and then consulting the chemical literature. Other products can be more bottom-up,
such as Belides ORG, a natural skin-lightening agent derived from organic daisy flowers. Bellis perennis is commonly used in herbal decoctions and ointments to help heal wounds.
“It was basically a gut feeling of a
cell biologist who was very much into phytochemistry and traditional medicine. She thought, if it can do that [heal wounds], it can help the skin.”
What about the use of AI - an almost
obligatory question these days – does CLR use it for project development? “We use large language models to get
to answers to our questions more efficiently with better quality. ChatGPT, yes. But there are others that are more on the academic side that cover questions about cell biology, dermatology, biotechnology, and so on. “AI accelerates the [research] process…. but
it’s like talking to a 12 year-old. You have to formulate your questions very thoroughly, and that requires knowledge.” Increasingly, CLR’s product development
includes consideration as to how it can be more sustainable in the production process. “We want to use as little energy as possible,
so we use as little heat as possible. We also want to use as little water as possible when cleaning the vessels and the fermenters,”
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