AWANTYS experiencing strong growth!

For the past two years, AWANTYS—founded in Germany in 1952 and a developer and manufacturer of high-end primary packaging for the beauty industry for over 70 years—has continued to grow, with particularly strong momentum in France and Southern Europe. Business in these markets grew by an average of about 20% per year in 2024 and 2025, and for 2026, the company is forecasting a further increase of about 25% in France and Southern Europe. We spoke with Eric Bigotte, Sales Director for France and Southern Europe.

A look back… After joining the ILEOS/AXILONE group in 2000, the company returned to family ownership in 2011. Today, its headquarters are located near Cologne, and it has, among other locations, an office in Paris. “We work with international beauty brands,” explains Eric Bigotte. “Our business combines the development of custom packaging with a broad portfolio of standard components and complete turnkey packaging systems. We also develop and manufacture caps and closures, jars, bottles, and other primary packaging components made of plastic, metal, glass, and wood. We also work with more unique materials such as semi-precious stones, marble, granite, concrete, and porcelain. Our in-house packaging engineers, rapid prototyping capabilities, and technical laboratory enable us to support our clients from the initial technical concept through to industrialization and mass production.”

AWANTYS’ client portfolio includes Amouage, Coty, Give Back Beauty, Lalique Beauty, and several brands within the LVMH Group. Its industrial footprint is built around a network of specialized production sites across Europe and Asia. “This allows us to select the manufacturing method best suited to each project,” emphasizes Eric Bigotte, “based on technology, quality, cost, delivery times, and supply chain resilience, rather than being limited by the capacity or utilization rate of a particular production site.”
The AWANTYS Group currently has a core team of about 15 people; engineering, customer service, and sales functions are managed in-house, while manufacturing is handled by a specialized network in Europe and Asia.

+25% in 2026!

Over the past two years, the company has experienced strong growth and anticipates an increase of approximately 25% in France and Southern Europe for 2026.

“We have invested accordingly,” emphasizes Eric Bigotte, “above all in human resources and skills. We have strengthened our engineering and customer service teams at our headquarters near Cologne, doubled our sales force in France, and opened our own office in Paris. At the same time, we have significantly expanded our range of in-stock components and continued to integrate technologies for the development of custom packaging.”

Innovation has been and remains a key focus of investment for the German-based company. Recent developments include “AWYGEM,” which enables the industrial-scale production of primary packaging components made from semi-precious stones, as well as AWYFLINT and AWYCLICK, two new platforms launched on the market this year. The company has also expanded its industrial footprint. “Vietnam and the Middle East are now active production regions within our manufacturing network,” explains Eric Bigotte, “carefully selected, which gives us additional flexibility to match each project with the most suitable technologies, economic conditions, and supply chain organization.”

Three Priorities for 2027

The company has also strengthened its long-term leadership structure with the appointment of Philipp Wolansky as co-CEO in 2024, thereby initiating a gradual transition to the next generation alongside Carsten Wolansky.
• sustaining growth in France and Southern Europe,
• expanding commercial adoption of innovations brought to market,
• deepening relationships with existing customers, and laying the groundwork for structured expansion into the U.S. market.

Looking ahead to 2027, there are three priorities: “Of course,” emphasizes Eric Bigotte, “the energy situation affects our sector in several ways.” The most immediate impact isn’t necessarily related to the energy consumed during the final manufacturing process itself, but rather to the effect on upstream raw material costs. The production of plastics, metals, and glass is very energy-intensive; consequently, higher and more volatile energy prices inevitably affect the cost of the raw materials we purchase.”

On the production side, the company explains that it has managed to mitigate much of this impact through a manufacturing network comprising sites that invest in areas such as photovoltaics, electrification, and energy-efficiency measures. “We obviously cannot control global raw material prices,” emphasizes Eric Bigotte, “but we can continuously optimize how and where we manufacture our products. More generally, however, we view the current situation as a supply chain challenge, not just an energy issue. Geopolitical disruptions can affect freight costs, transit times, and the reliability of transport routes between Asia and Europe. This is where our manufacturing model truly shines. Because we work with a geographically diversified network of specialized production sites across Europe and Asia, we can set up alternative production setups for critical projects and, if necessary, validate equivalent manufacturing pathways in different regions. This flexibility plays an increasingly important role in how we build resilient supply chains for our customers.”

Sustainability at the Core

At the corporate level, the company takes a measurable approach. It holds an EcoVadis Platinum rating, placing it among the top 1% of companies assessed by EcoVadis. “We also measure our corporate carbon footprint annually with ClimatePartner,” explains Eric Bigotte, “in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and make a corresponding financial contribution to certified climate protection projects.
From a product perspective, our approach is deliberately material-agnostic and engineering-focused. It’s worth noting that among our customers, we see very different interpretations of what sustainable packaging means. For some, the priority is recyclability and circularity; for others, it’s the content of recycled materials, material reduction, or alternatives to fossil-based materials. Our role is to translate these different requirements into technically robust and scalable packaging solutions,”

That is why the company has developed a broad portfolio of exclusive sustainability platforms such as AWYFLINT, which offers perfume and cosmetic bottles as well as glass jars containing 60% post-consumer recycled glass, providing high transparency and year-round production in an electric furnace. It also offers plastic solutions with a high PCR content derived from conventional post-consumer waste streams, solutions made from ocean-sourced plastic, as well as AWYVERDE, an exclusive non-petrochemical compound that provides an industrially compostable alternative.

How to Use Plastics!

“For us,” insists Eric Bigotte, “sustainable packaging begins with the customer’s definition of sustainability. From there, our job is to design the right solution. When it comes to plastics, they are often the subject of highly emotional debates. But it’s helpful to return to the facts. On the scale required by our industry, there is currently no single alternative capable of replicating the full combination of performance, design freedom, processability, and cost-effectiveness offered by conventional plastics. The question, therefore, is not simply how to eliminate plastic, but how to use it better.”

The company offers solutions with high post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, such as AWYCYCLE—which includes grades containing more than 99% post-consumer recycled material—as well as AWYOCEAN, made from ocean-recovered plastic. And for customers who wish to take a different path, AWYVERDE offers an exclusive, non-petrochemical alternative. “The second question,” explains Eric Bigotte, “concerns what happens to the packaging at the end of its useful life. Single-material design is an obvious approach, as it simplifies recycling. But luxury packaging often derives its distinctive character from the combination of different materials. That is precisely why we developed AWYCLICK: to enable the creation of sophisticated multi-material packaging while designing the components so that they can be separated by the consumer at the end of their life and directed toward the appropriate recycling streams.
We remain fundamentally neutral with regard to materials. Our role is not to impose a single material or a single definition of sustainability. It is about understanding what the client expects from their packaging—in terms of design, positioning, performance, and sustainability—and designing the right solution based on these criteria.”