Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 11th April 2024 Issue no. 1109

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Kimberly-Clark expands network of global innovation centres

Kimberly-Clark Corporation has announced plans to establish a Global Innovation Centre in Bogota, Colombia, the first facility of its kind in the region. The centre will develop products using local and regional insights to meet broader consumer needs around the world. This development follows Kimberly-Clark's recent announcement of its Korea Global Innovation Centre and marks a significant expansion of the company's worldwide innovation capabilities.

"Innovation is a core strategy of our Global Business Plan," says Cindy Panning, Kimberly-Clark's vice president of Product Development. "We intend to further leverage our leadership by coupling integrated marketing programmes with winning innovation around the world to grow our categories and our businesses. Our Global Innovation Centres will help us stay competitive in a fast-changing environment."

The Colombia and Korea expansion sites will join a global network that includes Kimberly-Clark's North American facilities in Neenah, Wisconsin and Roswell, Georgia as well as the Innovation Centre of Asia in Seoul, Korea.

"The Colombia Global Innovation Centre will be strategically located within Kimberly-Clark's Latin American Operations," says Cindy. "Colombia offers us access to a thriving, diverse talent base with keen insights into developing markets and how to succeed in them, as well as a favourable cost structure. The Global Innovation Centre will also benefit from strong support from the Colombian government, which is focused on development in the hygiene sector."

Kimberly-Clark currently has five manufacturing plants in Colombia that cover all product sectors. The Colombia Innovation Centre will be located in Bogota and will provide opportunities for talented employees to collaborate in global-scale product development with their counterparts in North America and Asia.

The Korea Global Innovation Centre, announced in July, will be located adjacent to the Innovation Centre of Asia. This expands Kimberly-Clark's research, engineering and design capabilities with product development. The close proximity to the key, premium Korean market will accelerate the development and introduction of innovative products.

"We selected Korea because of the 40-year success of our joint-venture company, Yuhan-Kimberly, and because the country is at the forefront of many great technologies and inventions that meet consumer demands," explains Cindy. "The Korea Global Innovation Centre will help take Kimberly-Clark to the next level of global collaboration in both technology and product development."

T: +1-972-281-1389
E: [email protected]
W: www.kimberly-clark.com

1st September 2011