In an interview Udayan Kumar Singh, Managing Director, Kumar Organic Products Ltd with Chemical Today magazine delves into the latest technological advancement in the personal care industry giving a detailed overview on the future of biotech ingredients.
By Shivani Mody
Take us through the journey traversed by Kumar Organic.
In 1995, Kumar Organic Products Limited (KOPL) was started at Jigani in Bangalore. Our first developed product is Kopsan (Triclosan), one of the most widely used anti-bacterial across the globe. We are one of the pioneers in antibacterial ingredient manufacturers. Today, we are world leader’s in manufacturing of Kopsan.
Since then, we started strengthening our R&D activities and currently we have about 65 people in our research team. Our company is divided into- skin care, hair care, antibacterial ingredients, paint & coating ingredients and food & healthcare ingredients. Today KOPL has 4 manufacturing units- two units in Bangalore, one in Hassan, and one biocide unit in Vadodara, Gujarat.
Currently we are focusing our research towards integrating biotech in our processes. Our anti-bacterial ingredient is used in every segment including personal care products, food products, pharma, paints etc. The general trend today is that most people are shifting away from synthetic products. There are two alternatives for synthetic: one is natural/herbal extracts and the other one is derived from bio-tech route.
The major challenge for natural extracts is its efficacy and to cover this, manufacturers top it up with synthetic ingredients. Biotechnology does not have this problem. We are the first company in India, who is working on bio-technology with its end use in personal care industry and the second company worldwide to come up with the product, Pullulan, which is a polysaccharide that has a wide range of applications in food, pharma and cosmetics etc.
We are now trying to come up with an innovation to extract an antibacterial through biotech. In antibacterial, triclosan is used in most toothpaste, shampoo, soap etc. But since it is synthetic, it poses a challenge. We have come up with an antibacterial through fermentation route which is as good as synthetic Triclosan with the same efficacy, same pricing portfolio and can be used in pharma, personal care, toothpaste, shampoo, soaps, coatings etc. We plan to launch it in 2017-18.
What are the global trends in cosmetics?
The US and Europe are in a state of saturation and major growth is seen in Asia and Africa. The most important product that goes into almost every cosmetic - be it toothpaste, soaps, creams, colour cosmetics etc, is antibacterial and preservatives. There are a lot of challenges including regulatory and toxicology challenges and everybody is looking for a replacement. Our company came up with a new product using specialty designed reactor which will be launched next year. We will also be launching a biotech fermented preservative.
Even though there is saturation in Europe and US, the personal care industry is witnessing a major growth in India, which roughly accounts to about 22 percent growth. Apart from this, China, Indonesia and Malaysia are also seeing strong growth while Thailand, Korea and Japan are reaching saturation. Africa, however has tremendous growth opportunity.
In the skin care division, Kumar Organic is mostly into skin whitening segment. The skin care industry is dominated by arbutin but it has its own limitations. We have introduced an innovative product called Kopcinol, which do not have those limitations and works on a wide range of skin types and blocks two major melanin synthesis enzymes like Tyrosinase and TRP-1 (Tyrosinase related protein-1), unlike other kin whitening molecules like Arbutin or Kojic Acid.
In the hair care division, we are mainly focusing on hair growth and antidandruff products. Globally, most of hair growth products are soluble in organic solvents which lead to itching and dandruff problems. Our team addressed this problem and changed the entire application to waterbased medium. We are the only company with these unique products and have filed patents in India and US. KOPL is in talks with some major players to launch this product. The hair care is an important sector for us and we cover a wide range of product in this segment right from Minoxidil to Kopexil, Kopyrrol etc.
Global trends in the paint industry.
The major trend in the paint industry is to make the products more functional, in terms of hygiene. Paints today not just talk about ways to make a house beautiful, but also how it can protect the house from germs, UV rays etc. In short, people now want paints, that are water proof, scratch proof, germ proof etc. But making multifunctional paints have a major challenge - of adding all these features without hampering the other parameters of the paint. The R&D efforts are also time consuming; one has to test all these parameters in isolation and also in a combination.
Anti-bacterial forms an important part of the paint and coating industry. The biocides used today are very old technologically and have their own ecological challenges. However, biocide, which has made a mark recently is the Zinc Pyrithione. It finds its usage in the paint industry especially in decorative paints, which is growing in a big way. Kumar Organic also manufacture Copper Pyrithione, a derivative of Zinc Pyrithione, that finds its application in the coatings industry. We have tied up with some of the big giants in the industry for this to come up with a portfolio of zinc pyrithione. We have also patented a particular size of copper pyrithione, which plays an important role on how it behaves on the coating surface. With this we have become the biggest manufacturer of Zinc and Copper Pyrithione.
Global trends in the food industry.
Packaged food is growing in a big way in India and this has given rise to two major trends. One is the food packaging industry, which is finding ways to be better in terms of quality and retaining freshness in healthy ways.
The other trend is of making packed food healthier. For instance, in the biscuit industry, starch is being replaced by whole wheat, making it low carb, high fibre etc. Our product, pullulan, is a substitute, which can help get more fibre in the biscuit segments. This innovation is still new in the country and we are trying to introduce this product soon.
Challenges that are critical for the industry.
Given the rising health concerns, regulations will play an important role in the future. Growth of food industry and compliance to the regulations will differentiate one company from the other. FDA in India has also become very strict and there are frequent checks and auditing that happens on a regular basis. Pollution control is a big challenge and there is no compromise on that. At Kumar, all the four units have our own pollution treatment. But the country in general has to gear up for this. This is an area, which also requires government participation to help the industries with common effluent treatment plants etc. For instance, in Gujarat, there are separate efficient treatment units where small industries that are not capable of investing in their own effluent treatment can tie up with the government effluent treatment units.
On the technology front, India is doing great as we have the manpower and technology to compete globally. However, there are some areas or processes, like fermentation where we need to diversify. We have to penetrate deeper into the fermentation processes used in personal care and food ingredients segment. China is our major competitor and we lag behind due to cost competitiveness.
Growth potential in the emerging markets.
India definitely is the strongest contender and I foresee a huge growth in personal care industry where segments like shampoo, soaps, toothpaste, and other health and hygiene products. With the additional boost from various government awareness campaigns, this industry will see a huge growth. Food industry also has a huge potential, especially due to the rise in the packaged food consumption.
Market dynamics of the personal care industry in India.
Personal care industry in India is growing very fast especially in the oral care segment. All these years there was one dominant player in the oral care division, but now local players are also entering the competition and are also going global. Hence, there is a huge opportunity for local ingredient manufacturers in a market, which was dominated by multinationals. Local manufacturers can now match the quality, regulatory requirements and are also better on the pricing, giving us growth opportunities. Unfortunately, in India lot of attention is on pharma, even though personal care manufacturing is a fast growing segment.
We concentrate majorly on preservatives and antibacterials. Since the move is towards herbal and natural extracts, we collected over 300 samples from various jungles across Karnataka and we came up with micro-organism that can be used as an antibacterial with its efficacy equivalent to the global standards. For antibacterial, oral care is the biggest segment as you need the good germs to stay and the bad germs to be removed. The molecule that we have found can be a breakthrough for us as the tests that we are currently running on various microorganisms present in mouth are showing positive results.
Future growth plans
Globally, we are the world leaders and biggest producer in one kind of antibacterial. Now we plan to expand our portfolio in the antibacterial segment - especially in personal care division. We have four new antibacterials in our pipeline, that complies with the US FDA norms. We recently launched Kopcerin (Ethyl Hexyl Glycerine) and Kopxylenol (Chloroxylenol) with plans for two more launches in the pipeline.
Incorporating sustainability.
Our target is to completely migrate from synthetic to biotech by 2025. In the coming years, biotechnology will constitute a major portion of our business. Kumar Organic has a biotech lab with almost 18 Scientists working and by December 2016, we will be setting up a molecular biology lab to meet our aim.
Read More: Biotech holds the future of industry
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