Last month, fragrance manufacturer Symrise, opened The Little Red House. This new centre is located in a district in the heart of Shanghai and has been designed by renowned French architect Jean Nouvel who invites all perfumers working in this new hub to be inspired, cooperate and create differently.
This new fragrance manufacturing facility offers a dedicated space for market research, creative arts and olfactory culture, with exclusive events, fragrance masterclasses, meetings with perfumers and talks on the latest trends to learn, connect and share knowledge, and much more.
During the inaugural event, Symrise fine fragrance perfumers Alexandra Carlin and Maxime Exler, Fragrance Associate President Ricardo Omori, Global Fragrance President Eder Ramos and other team members welcomed customers and media. They then shared information about Symrise, its future, roadmap and upcoming approaches to further the creation of fragrances with its diverse capabilities.
"We believe in leading the forefront of innovation and accessibility for our customers. Like L'Appartement Étoile in Paris, the Little Red House is strategically located in the heart of Shanghai and brings us closer to our customers. It also offers a modern environment that sparks creativity," said Julianne Pruett, Global President of Fine Fragrance.
"We consider China a strategic market for Symrise. To support our customers in the most agile way, we opened an R&D facility in 2019 and invested €200 million in a factory that opened in 2020. Now, The Little Red House will offer us a dedicated space for co-creation with our local and international customers. It will also highlight many of our high-tech capabilities. The Little Red House therefore marks the continuation of Symrise's expansion and reinvention of the fine fragrance category in Asia," explains Ricardo Omori, Deputy President of Fragrances.
As a commemoration of fragrant China, the opening saw Symrise present the project on which perfumers David Apel, Suzy Le Helley and Maxime Exler had worked on the revival of an iconic De Laire base: Piviane. It pays homage to China's long love affair with the Peony. The Peony was a flower perceived as a symbol of the country during the Tang dynasty (618 - 907) and became the favourite flower of the people of the time. In a poll conducted by The China Flower Association in 2019, the Peony was voted the national flower, beating all other flowers with an astonishing 79.7% of the votes. In feng shui it forms one of the most auspicious flowers and symbolises love, prosperity and beauty, also popularly known as the "monarch of flowers."