As leader in private label, Ontex maintains a strong focus on product development and is investing continuously in innovation in order to further improve the comfort, fit and performance of the product.
The R&D department is split up in R&D centers according to productcategories i.e. babycare, incontinence and feminine hygiene (for external and internal use) and has teams based in each of the key manufacturing units as well as in the headquarters in Zele, Belgium, from where the R&D department is managed.
The role of the R&D team is to provide the Ontex Group with a flexible and innovative R&D-system, which enables the company to work actively on new concepts, changes in product specifications, to validate new raw materials and to contribute to productivity by optimisation of the used raw materials. The R&D activities are based on a multi-functional and a short time-to-market principle.
In order to obtain the desired raw materials and concepts, the R&D teams are working closely together with key suppliers carefully selected in close cooperation with the purchase department.
To ensure that all products are fully validated and well tested before release to customers, each R&D center has its own labfacilities working closely together with all manufacturing units which also have their own laboratory testing equipment. In order to validate the products in all its aspects (incl. safety risks), in use tests are organised next to labtests and this in close cooperation with independent test organisations. Only after positive evaluation, the products are released for production.