LODI, Italy — It’s not every day you see an amusement park-style train running around a factory.

But one of the two colorful vehicles roaming the site of fragrance manufacturer ICR Industrie Cosmetiche Riunite on a sunny July morning here was led by Ambra Martone, who’s helming the beauty company alongside her father, founder and president Roberto Martone.

As she pointed to areas of the building and detailed their purpose through a microphone while en route, speaking loudly of the spirit embedded in her family business, the passion for what Martone does spread infectiously.

Reserved and hard-workers, the Martones are among the Italian families who have contributed to the flourishing of the local beauty industry. It is an economic force that generated total sales of 16.5 billion euros last year and is best known for behind-the-scenes yet leading beauty suppliers rather than acclaimed cosmetics brands.

In the same spirit, the Martones have operated quietly and incessantly for the past half-century. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of ICR, they opened the doors of their production hub, spanning more than 1.3 million square feet, to local institutions and members of the press, offering visitors a glimpse of how their products are made — from formulation and packaging development to global distribution — and a peek at what’s to come.

Over the past two years, ICR has invested more than 26 million euros to further build on its production capacity, efficiency and, ultimately, legacy. Investments supported the implementation of two fully automated filling and packaging lines that add 20 million pieces to ICR’s annual production of more than 120 million units; the installment of its sixth production and maceration room for alcohol-based perfumery, which will enable the firm to reach a capacity of 420,000 liters, and the expansion of its research and development and quality laboratories, doubling the area dedicated to these purposes, as well as a microbiology lab to meet increasingly stringent international standards. 

A second automated warehouse is being built and will be operational by the end of the year, while a 1.6-megawatt photovoltaic system will complement the existing 1.9-megawatt plant, allowing a reduction of 2 million kilograms of CO2 per year. Also on the sustainability front, since last year ICR pivoted from using cosmetic-grade alcohol derived from Hungarian corn to the one derived from German sugar beet, a shift that ensures a lower environmental impact and a greater agricultural efficiency and quality.  

In an interview with WWD, Roberto Martone highlighted how all of these tweaks will enable the firm not only to serve better its portfolio and its growing demand of fragrances, but to attract new clients, too.  

Last year, ICR’s total sales surged 26 percent to 196 million euros versus 2023, propelled by additions, such as Dolce & Gabbana. The brand further boosted ICR’s production of fragrances and scented cosmetics for luxury groups including LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton with Bulgari; Interparfums with Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli, DNKY, Guess, MCM and Anna Sui; Kering Beauté, and Give Back Beauty, in addition to artistic and private-label perfumery brands.

“The goal going forward is to consolidate our capacity and expertise,” said Martone. “We’re strong in alcoholic perfumery, and that’s where we have to keep investing because there’s still potential in this segment and the market can grow. And we can grow with it also with new partnerships.” The executive revealed that although he considered expanding into skin care and makeup a few years ago, he eventually resisted the temptation and decided to keep ICR’s focus on what it does best. 

In addition to Dolce & Gabbana, Martone pointed to Ferragamo, with which ICR has had a long history of collaboration. When the Florentine brand signed a licensing agreement with Interparfums in 2021, the Martones got to meet their new partners and clicked with them right away. So much so that Interparfums decided to keep the collaboration going and stretch it to other brands in its portfolio, like Roberto Cavalli and Guess. 

“But last year’s performance was an exception,” said Martone, flashing a smile. “In terms of sales, we expect 2025 to be more ‘relaxed,’ so to say. A year of consolidation. Also because the fragrance market is linked to the fashion one, which has slowed down for different reasons, from wars to tariffs. So we already foresaw there will be a slowdown for us, too.”

Yet this projection doesn’t tarnish his optimistic nature. Among the key factors marking ICR’s success is its ability to serve more than 120 markets worldwide. While Martone pointed to Germany and Eastern European countries in addition to Italy as ICR’s key markets, in the longer term he sees potential in South America and Africa.

Martone’s positive inclination is also backed by the quality and attention to detail ICR offers, aspects that not only enabled the company to be the first cosmetics firm in Italy to be certified for its quality in 1996, but are embedded in his family roots. 

There wouldn’t be ICR without Marvin, the pharmaceutical company his father Vincenzo founded in 1940. The seeds of research and innovation were planted back then, while its pioneering approach was expressed in the ‘60s, when Marvin expanded its scope to diversify into cosmetics — a decision received with skepticism, since at the time cosmetics were seen as less noble products. But the move proved to be strategic both commercially and in terms of awareness, with Martone’s father scooping up the top prize of cosmetology in 1969. 

The scientific approach and research into raw materials and formulations paved the way for ICR’s current ethos. “We’ve always tried to innovate,” said Martone. “We have always reinvested our profits into this. And luckily we’ve always grown, with the sole exception of the year of COVID-19,” said the founder, who defined that moment as the most challenging one of the past half-century, “as we saw our sales halved from one year to the next, and we had to fight to keep all of our employees.” 

Today, the company has a workforce of 670 people, 79 percent of which are women. “We’ve always believed in the factory and its people and worked to invest into these and into anticipating future demands,” said Martone. “But without overdoing. Sometimes, entrepreneurs are seen as visionary personalities: I believe I had the right vision, but I’ve always had a step-by-step approach.…I’ve looked at competition but as a stimulus to go forward on my own path and within my company’s size.”

Martone’s biggest credit is to have had the intuition to bet on Made-in-Italy production — challenging the monopoly of French perfumery — and doing so by way of collaborating with fashion brands.

“I founded the company around the time of the rise of the Italian fashion movement,” recalled Martone. “So I took the chance of this wave to convince some designers to produce their perfumes in Italy. Today, the Made-in-Italy concept is well-known in every field, but at the time France reigned supreme, especially in fragrances.”

ICR started in 1975 with partnerships with the likes of Renato Balestra, Romeo Gigli and Nazareno Gabrielli, followed by big successes with Nicola Trussardi and Gianni Versace. In those years, the company developed its distinctive know-how and broadened its skills from production to concept, essence formulation, packaging and advertising.

In just a decade its production grew to the point it had to be relocated from the original factory in Milan’s Tortona district to the bigger and current site in Lodi. Manufacturing agreements followed, including the ones with Bulgari and Ferragamo in 1992 and 1996, respectively. 

In those years, the license portfolio also expanded with the likes of Gianfranco Ferré, Blumarine, Roberto Cavalli, Pomellato and Dsquared2, to name a few. This prompted the creation of a special company called ITF — standing for Italian Fragrances — in 2002, aimed at handling contracts and managing the relationship with the brands. ITF was sold to Angelini Beauty in 2013 in light of the strategic choice of wanting to focus mainly on production.

ICR has also manufactured fragrances for Acqua di Parma, Buccellati and Dr. Vranjes, in addition to LabSolue, the artistic and artisanal brand Martone’s daughter Ambra — who’s also president of Accademia del Profumo — created with her late sister Giorgia.

“What we’ve been noticing is that everybody in the recent past wanted to create high-end fragrances to further elevate their branding, while in the past perfumes were seen as the designer’s hand reaching out to a wider audience,” said Martone.

Evolving habits have encouraged ICR to add spaces like ICR Lab and Atelier ICR to the Lodi plant. The former is dedicated to the early stages of product development, supporting clients in defining the storytelling, visual identity, naming, design ideas and study of materials. The latter is dedicated to highly personalized artistic fragrances to be produced in small batches, with a degree of customization that can scale down to a single piece.

In another pioneering move, in 2013 the Martones turned the original ICR factory in Milan into a unique hospitality project, dubbed Magna Pars l’Hotel à Parfum. Each of the 68 suites of the five-star hotel is different from the other not only in the way it is furnished with artisan pieces by Italian designers but also inspired by a different olfactory note, such as gardenia, narcissus, vetiver and sandalwood.

The scented concept trickles down to all areas, from the Olfactory Check-in enabling guests to choose a fragrance and therefore the matching suite, to the Olfactory Aperitif, where scented cocktails are served.