An innovative business model
In December 2013, the Senén Vilaró Prize, awarded by the Board of Trustees and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, was given to Infinitec Activos, a biotechnology company devoted to create products for important cosmetic firms which has an uncommon business model. Like many biotechnology companies, it was not created by scientists; it was created by two professionals from the commercial sector; they knew that they had to set up a collaboration with the Barcelona Science Park (PCB). The business was set up in 2006 thanks to a loan of 120,000 euros and now, seven years later, the company has an annual turnover of 2 million euros, it employs sixteen people and has forty-six distributors around the world; 80% of its turnover comes from foreign markets.
In December 2013, the Senén Vilaró Prize, awarded by the Board of Trustees and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, was given to Infinitec Activos, a biotechnology company devoted to create products for important cosmetic firms which has an uncommon business model. Like many biotechnology companies, it was not created by scientists; it was created by two professionals from the commercial sector; they knew that they had to set up a collaboration with the Barcelona Science Park (PCB). The business was set up in 2006 thanks to a loan of 120,000 euros and now, seven years later, the company has an annual turnover of 2 million euros, it employs sixteen people and has forty-six distributors around the world; 80% of its turnover comes from foreign markets.
Alfons Hidalgo and Josep Maria Borràs, the founders of Infinitec, explain that the creation of exclusive products that suits clientsʼ needs is what differ their company from others. “The ability to have new ideas, to create new ingredients, is an important aspect”, explains Hidalgo. “That is the reason why —he adds— Infinitec not only carries out its own research; at least 35% of it is external, it comes from groups of the University or emergent companies; this promotes ground-breaking ideas”. External research collaborators do not necessarily belong to the cosmetic sector, they come from laboratories focused on the pharmaceutical or the food sector, for example.
Infinitec is a key supplier for Elizabeth Arden and La Prairie; the company is now working on research projects together with Estée Lauder and Avon. The firm is specialized in the synthesis of peptides (it offers more than ten products: anti-wrinkle, antiaging, self-tanner, etc.), high-tech delivery systems and marine biotechnology (products of marine origin made of more than 56,000 extracts).
The most outstanding characteristic of the company is its internationalization; it sells in about twenty countries. It has a production plant in Montornès del Vallès (Barcelona) and its R&D lab at the Bioincubator of PCB and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation. In 2011, Alfons Hidalfo moved to the United States to invigorate the presence of the company in the country. “The company has made a qualitative leap thanks to the North-American market”, affirms Hidalgo.
Alfons Hidalgo has arrived to the United States with the professional career that led him to set up this entrepreneurial project. He combined his studies in Chemistry with many other jobs. After having worked some years in a cosmetic company, he was unemployed and he decided to move to London. While he was working at home and looking after his daughter, he devised Infinitec's project. In order to set up the company, he was supported by the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation and Fernando Albericio, professor of Organic Chemistry at the UB and former director of PCB. “To get funding, I ask for a loan”, remembers Hidalgo. “There are not good moments to set up a business —he adds—; entrepreneurs are always going through a crisis”. Now, he develops most part of his work in the United States. Hidalgo explains that North American market is “very difficult and competitive, but there are not prejudices: if your product is good, it is not important who you are or where do you come from”. “People are less frightened”, he highlights.