Unilever unveils plans for $270 million US-based global innovation centre

Unilever has unveiled plans for a new, purpose-built global innovation centre in the US, which will be home to research and development for our beauty, wellbeing and personal care Power Brands.

By increasing the pace of scientific breakthroughs, it will enable us to bring the next generation of premium, market-making products to consumers faster, helping drive strong and consistent volume growth both in the US and globally.

The centre will be located at the heart of one of the world’s fastest-growing biosciences innovation clusters – in New Haven, Connecticut – home to dozens of world-class universities and hundreds of companies. This gives our scientists, engineers and experts opportunities to co-create alongside pioneering researchers and technology partners.

The combination of assets and capabilities – including AI and quantum computing – will speed up materials discovery, product testing and development. The deeper insights this unlocks will help us advance the fundamental differentiators that make our brands distinct and products desirable: superior science, irresistible aesthetics and elevated sensorials.

What’s more, as every stage of the innovation cycle will be brought together under one roof – from formulation and fragrance creation to packaging design and consumer insights – our teams will be able to collaborate even more closely to further accelerate product development.

“This new centre is where we'll innovate at the intersection of science, technology and culture,” says Herrish Patel, President of Unilever USA and CEO of Personal Care North America. “As the US becomes a centre of gravity for Unilever, we’re harnessing the best of American innovation to match our growth ambition here in the US and around the world.”

What specific capabilities will be housed at the centre?

The centre will include a global centre for skin care and cleansing, as well as our polycultural skin and hair centre of excellence, which specialises in creating ingredients and products that address the unmet needs of millions of consumers.

A human performance lab will generate unprecedented new data and insights into human physiology, enabling on-site testing of ingestibles, and accelerating growth across our wellbeing brands.

In a Unilever Fragrance House, perfumists, chemists and packaging designers will work together from the earliest stages of development, placing fragrance at the heart of product creation and sensory experience.

And a packaging innovation studio will allow us to incorporate real-time consumer feedback to enable the faster development of packaging prototypes with premium shelf appeal, both online and in physical stores.

Access to the universities and companies across the New Haven ecosystem will help us build on our expertise in skin biology, the microbiome and skin–brain axis. It will also enhance our use of cutting-edge neuroscience to create products that connect sensory attributes like texture, fragrance and bioactives with emotional, behavioural and wellness responses.

“Behind every Unilever product is world-leading science designed to deliver superior performance, combined with design, fragrance and sensory experiences that make our brands stand out,” says Richard Slater, Unilever Chief R&D Officer.

“The centre will bring these capabilities together to create products that are developed in the US and built to scale globally. The step change here is integration and speed: science, design and sensorials working as one, with AI accelerating every stage of the cycle.”

We will invest $270 million in the project over the long term, including $50 million in capital expenditure, our biggest R&D capex investment in the US in 40 years. This builds on nearly $15 billion invested in our US business over the past decade, across both acquisitions and capital projects.

Around 300 employees will work at the centre when it’s fully operational, which we expect to be by spring 2029.

The move supports Unilever’s strategy to become a sharper, focused beauty, personal care and wellbeing company, built on shared capabilities across science-led innovation, demand creation and operational execution.

Frequently asked questions

• Why is this new innovation centre located in the US?

  The US is Unilever’s priority market for the expansion of our Beauty, Wellbeing and Personal Care portfolio, offering the biggest opportunity for growth and premiumisation. US brands and US culture trends travel globally, so the country serves as a platform for international product roll-outs. The new global innovation centre will build on Unilever’s long legacy of scientific advancement in the US, where we currently hold more than 500 patents.

• How will the new centre create innovative beauty, personal care and wellbeing products?

  AI capabilities, the emerging potential of quantum computing, and new breakthroughs in neuroscience, skin biology and human physiology are converging to unlock previously unimaginable kinds of products that can tap into new dimensions of wellness and sensory experiences. Unilever’s new innovation centre will create new categories by unlocking the science of desire – how we create not just products that work but ones that people crave.

• How is Unilever becoming a more focused business?

  In category terms, Unilever is shifting its portfolio into more Beauty, Wellbeing and Personal Care. Together, these now represent 51% of our business. Our intention in the medium to long term is to make it two-thirds. We believe that these categories structurally have more potential for growth and more scope for premiumisation.