Laboratoires Pierre Fabre doubles production capacity at the Avène plant to drive the international growth of their flagship brand

With Dermo Cosmetics revenue reaching €1.7 billion in 2025 (+2.6% versus 2024), driven by strong growth of the Eau Thermale Avène brand (+3.9% at constant exchange rates), the transformation and expansion of the Avène factory are at the core of a global industrial plan involving €250 million of investments over the 2023–2027 period.

A key industrial site at the heart of the Avène brand’s history

Located close to the spring and the Avène Hydrotherapy Centre, the Avène production unit plays a central role in Laboratoires Pierre Fabre’ dermo cosmetic industrial network. It combines manufacturing, packaging and a storage warehouse, and is supported by two external logistics sites.
Since 2010, nearly €90 million has already been invested. The plant currently employs 330 people and produces around 100 million finished products per year on its 9 manufacturing platforms, 1 sterile manufacturing platform and 12 packaging lines.
The factory relies on two cutting edge technologies that are particularly emblematic of the brand:

• Unique expertise in the manufacturing and packaging of “sterile cosmetic” products, based on preservative free production methods that remain one of a kind worldwide in the cosmetics sector.
• Aerosol lines producing the Avène Thermal Spring Water spray in a sterile block, using a packaging process that is also unique in the world: the water remains perfectly pure until the very first spray on the skin. This iconic product is sold every second around the globe.

Supporting the international growth of the Avène brand: from 100 to 200 million units by 2029

The strong momentum of the Avène brand, Laboratoires Pierre Fabre’ leading brand and the second largest player in the global dermo cosmetics market, is reflected in robust international growth, particularly in China (+10.7%) and the United States (+9.2%). To support this international expansion, the Avène plant must meet a significant capacity challenge, both in terms of manufacturing and packaging.

Moving towards a plant that meets the highest industrial and environmental standards 

In Avène, this ambition is first being translated into a smart reconfiguration of the site. A new technical building is under construction to house all utilities – in particular boilers, chillers and associated equipment – which are currently located at the heart of the production unit. Thermal utilities are being modernized and consolidated into a single area, with a boiler fleet now running entirely on liquefied natural gas, supplemented by the addition of an electric boiler.
The plant is moving towards best-in-class industrial standards: production areas are refocused on their core activities (manufacturing and packaging), and flows become more direct, easier to manage and easier to automate.

A state of the art packaging workshop

The central area freed up on the site will be covered and transformed into a state of the art bottle packaging workshop, where two new packaging lines will be installed. The packaging extension adds nearly 1,900 m² of space and has been designed to streamline production sequences, reduce handling breaks and minimize unnecessary manual operations.

Our objective is twofold: to significantly increase capacity while simplifying the day to day running of the plant, with more automated internal flows and improved ergonomics for our teams. To achieve this, we are deploying innovative digital and robotic solutions to enhance reliability and secure our lead times. We aim to make Avène a human scale factory, where the modernization of work tools goes hand in hand with skills development. We want to offer a modern environment, firmly rooted in its local area, that encourages people to build their professional journey here

Anne-Sophie Fontaine

Director of the Avène plant

A concrete and measurable energy transition 

From an energy standpoint, the Avène plant is contributing to the Group’s ecological transition for its industrial operations. A heat pump has been installed to recover waste heat from wastewater and will be used to heat the new workshop. Housed in a building of around 40 m², this system will save approximately 700 MWh of gas per year.
These local initiatives are part of a broader environmental roadmap already underway: industrial operations account for more than 80% of the company’s energy consumption and nearly 50% of its water withdrawals. Pierre Fabre has set itself an ambitious trajectory for the coming years, aiming to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (–46% by 2030 for scopes 1 and 2), increase the share of renewable energy to 100% at its production sites in France, and allocate a growing proportion of its industrial investments to high-environmental-value projects, notably steered by an internal carbon price. 

 Know more about the Laboratoires Pierre Fabre  

Press Contact:

Caroline PERDRIX
caroline.perdrix@pierre-fabre.com 
06 75 22 81 63