Trends in New Product Development

I think that and this is not just a domestic concern, but it's definitely in the minds of our consumers all around the world.

Being able to present your supply chain in a way that's completely transparent and accountable towards sustainability is affecting how everyone is doing new product development right now, whether it's on the product side or it's on the the ingredient side or the raw material component side all the way up to, to where things are being sourced at plantations and stuff like that.

Two very important trends that we need to pay attention to is the biodegradability of raw, not just the raw material components, but also the final product itself.

That has become a must have for any new product now.

This kind of dovetails also into new regulations on microplastics from the EU, that's also greatly affecting development of synthetic polymer technology being leveraged inside of raw materials.

The fact that microplastic regulation is the traditional old thickening technology that has been used by not just first world, but also second and third world, third world countries can't be used anymore going forward by the biggest customers in the world. The Unilever's to P&Gs, they all have action plans in place to completely eliminate anything in their portfolio that could be considered a microplastic or isn't biodegradable in some way.

So we're not just talking about the lotions and creams. You're also talking about laundry detergents and the home care goods and things like that.

If your new products aren't taking those things into account, if you're still trying to use old tech and trying to rebrand as part of burgeoning sales, it's just not going to work.

It needs to be biodegradable. It needs to be tested to the types of guidelines set out by governing authorities. And it cannot be considered a microplastic because sustainability overall is still, I think, the dominant trend in the NPD.