The Valencian company, manufacturer of hygiene and cleaning products, which launched in March a work area in the business area of the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV) with the challenge of boosting its competitiveness and promoting its alliances, closes the 2022 financial year with a net profit of 1.15 million euros and more than 70 million units sold internationally
The Ubesol Group, which has offices and laboratories in the business area of the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV), closes the 2022 financial year with a significant reduction in profits compared to the previous year, as a result of the global context, dominated by the increase in costs due to the rise in raw materials, logistics and energy. This had an impact on net profit, which fell from 9.8 million euros in 2021 to 1.15 million euros in 2022. It should be noted that this loss of margin, assumed by the group, has contributed favorably to curbing inflation in the final price of its products.
Within the 20-25 strategic plan presented by the company, internationalization is one of the fundamental pillars for the future of the group and in 2022 it has already exceeded 70 million units sold internationally, mainly of Personal Care products such as shower gels, deodorants, shampoos and wipes of all kinds. Its main way of growing internationally was through Contract Manufacturing or TPM for the main multinationals in the sector worldwide and, to a lesser extent, through Private Label for some of the main retailers in Europe. In this way, the products manufactured by Ubesol Group began to be sold throughout Europe and in new markets such as the USA, the Middle East, the Maghreb and South America.
Part of the Ubesol Group team at the facilities of the business area of the University of Valencia Science Park. Photo: Ubesol Group
The main strength to be able to work with the main multinationals in the sector was undoubtedly the quality, not only of the products but also of the production processes to ensure quality every day. That is why, in terms of quality, the group continues to make a strong commitment to international certifications and adds in 2022 the IFS HPC in Ubesol (in Laboratorios Maverick since 2020) to ensure total quality at all stages of supply. This certification is in addition to the company's existing environmental certifications, such as ISO 14001, ISO 50001, FSC and, in the field of occupational health and safety, ISO 45001. It is also a member of Sedex Smeta and Ecovadis.
With regard to its sustainability strategy, another of Ubesol's Group strategic pillars, in 2022 it invested heavily in energy self-consumption, with the installation of 4,800 solar panels, occupying 12,300m2. This has enabled it to become one of the largest photovoltaic plants in the personal care sector, which will generate approximately 20% of the energy demand of its plants and avoid the emission of 1,300 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year. In addition, these solar panels will power the chargers of the electric car charging stations that the company has set up free of charge for its internal employees and visitors, in order to promote sustainable mobility. The group's commitment to integrating environmental protection led it to extend its strategic sustainability plan to 2030.
"The new innovation center at the Parc Científic de la Universitat de València is a strategic location accompanied by an ecosystem of innovation and research of reference, which will undoubtedly help us to continue improving the quality of our products and in the search for innovative solutions for our customers", Jorge Úbeda, CEO of Ubesol Group
Continuous reinvention
The CEO of Ubesol Group, Jorge Úbeda, explains that "the industry is going through some very difficult years and is forcing us to continually reinvent ourselves and, although our sales forecasts in the 20-25 strategic plan are being met, our profitability has fallen considerably in recent years mainly due to the effects of the pandemic, energy costs, problems with global supply chains and raw material prices."
"All this has led us to rethink important changes internally to be able to adapt better and faster to the new times and to review our entire organizational structure to be able to also improve on costs and, above all, on response agility. For this reason, between 2022 and 2023, we have completely renewed the entire management committee and we will continue to focus strongly on innovation as a way to recover profitability in the future. That is why, despite having a large R&D&I team of around 60 professionals, distributed between Ulldecona and Atzeneta de Albaida, we have opened a new innovation center in 2022 at the University of Valencia Science Park. A strategic location accompanied by an ecosystem of innovation and research of reference, which will undoubtedly help us to continue improving the quality of our products and in the search for innovative solutions for our customers," says Úbeda.