'Cradle of K-beauty': Inside Kolmar Korea's Sejong factory producing 890 million cosmetics a year

"This place is like a cradle for small beauty companies."

That was the reaction of Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young as she toured the production facilities at Kolmar Korea's Sejong factory in Jeonui-myeon, Sejong Special Autonomous City, on Friday afternoon.

Lee inspected the factory's main production facilities, examining the cosmetics manufacturing process and the company's technological capabilities. She then held a roundtable with company executives to hear about the competitiveness of small cosmetics brands and the challenges they face in exporting.

Kolmar Korea, founded in 1990, was South Korea's first cosmetics original design manufacturer, or ODM. The company handles everything from product development to production on behalf of brand clients. The ODM model allows small and medium-sized enterprises that lack their own factories or research and development units to bring products to market by leveraging the manufacturer's technology and facilities.

Lee toured the factory's key production facilities in sequence, guided by company staff. The plant turns out about 890 million cosmetics units a year, including sunscreens and skincare products from brands such as Joseon Beauty and Dr. Althea that have gained popularity in global markets. The production floor offered a concentrated look at the manufacturing muscle behind the K-beauty wave.

A viewing corridor on the factory's second floor gave a clear overview of the entire cosmetics production process. Raw materials are received and pass through quality inspection before only those that clear the assessment move on to manufacturing. A single cosmetics product can require dozens of individual ingredients.

To produce 100 kilograms of sunscreen, for example, 40 to 50 raw materials are weighed out according to set formulation ratios and then blended in manufacturing tanks. The Sejong factory has 35 such tanks installed. Kolmar Korea uses roughly 7,000 types of raw materials in total.

Several tanks were visible from the manufacturing viewing corridor. The process involves preparing water-based and oil-based components separately before combining them in a main tank — a critical step that determines a product's texture and stability.

Process monitoring screens displayed the weight of products being manufactured and the operating status of each piece of equipment. Production data from the tanks is stored in the system and used to trace the cause of any quality issues that arise. Kolmar Korea said it is also pursuing an automated system that would apply AI analysis of accumulated production data directly to the manufacturing process.

The packaging area drew attention for its robotic arms. The Sejong factory has 11 filling and packaging lines. In some parts of the process, teams of six to seven workers handle product inspection and packaging by hand. Automated equipment was also on display, moving tubes and placing them into cases.

Lee paused to ask whether workers were there only to check on the machines. Kolmar Korea explained that workers handle tasks such as tube supply and product inspection, while robotic arms take care of moving products and inserting them into cases. However, small-batch products and those requiring special packaging are still processed manually.

After the factory tour, Lee sat down with Kolmar Korea's executives for a roundtable discussion. Key concerns raised included counterfeit products sold overseas, rising raw material costs, and the challenge of navigating cosmetics regulations that vary by country.

Kolmar Korea Chief Executive Choi Hyun-gyu said small indie brands exporting to North America and Europe are struggling with counterfeit versions of their products circulating in foreign markets. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said it is working with the Korean Intellectual Property Office and other relevant agencies to develop countermeasures against fakes.

Rising raw material prices were also cited as a burden. Costs that surged amid past global instability have yet to ease, adding to expenses for both manufacturers and small brand companies.

Lee has been visiting small and medium-sized enterprise production facilities and sites across the Chungcheong region since Thursday to hear directly from business owners. "Through these site visits, I have come to understand the policy challenges I had previously only seen on paper in much more concrete terms," she said. "I will continue to think them through when I return."