Rising consumer preference for personal care products through social media platforms has facilitated the Unilever Dubai Personal Care (DPC) factory to widen its bouquet of offerings to include more premium and niche products.

“DPC was set up with an AED 1 Billion AED (€250K investment). We have subsequently invested in growing its capabilities to produce many new products. We as a business are also looking into launching more premium and niche products from this site aside from our regular products which consumers already love,” said Mahmoud Abdel-Naby, Head of Supply Chain for Beauty & Well-being, Unilever, Middle East and Turkey.

“This factory is primarily a hair and skin care products site, which is a growing business all around the world and within the region. Especially with the advent of TikTok trends, consumers are keener to care of themselves than before”, he added.

DPC factory embraces state-of-the-art technologies and has the capability to churn out 250 million units of 400 different types of products. “We are currently catering to the entirety of the Middle East with our skin and hair care products as well as exporting to parts of Latin America and have also exported to North America in the past as well” he added.

Dubai, according to him, was selected as it is one of the most dynamic business hubs in the world and its position is supported by world-class infrastructure. It has a highly competitive business environment and trade agreements with many countries regionally and globally. It is also a magnet for talent in a very turbulent region and has a prized location as the gateway between the East and the West.

DPC is a role model for adopting emerging technology across Unilever and embeds 4th Industrial Revolution (IR) technologies in all aspects of its operations and was recognised by the World Economic Forum as an ‘Advanced Lighthouse of 4th Industrial Revolution’ – the first within Unilever and the UAE, and first non-energy site in MENA to be so recognised.

Using the latest technologies including robotics, machine learning, and AI enables rapid product delivery to the market. The factory’s production capacity can be rapidly increased to deliver responsiveness to market demand.

For instance, he said quality control is administered by leveraging the use of machine learning along with equipping the lines with high-speed cameras that automatically reject products not up to standard. AI has additionally been used for driving resource maximization such as the use of energy, hence reducing the environmental impact by reducing CO2 emissions, and also reducing water use and waste generation.

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