Flavor and fragrance company Symrise inaugurated its new fine fragrance center in Shanghai, China last Friday.
Called The Little Red House, the center is located at The Roof, a building designed by architect Jean Nouvel, in the Xuhui District. The name recalls Symrise’s red logo, the red walls of the location and Chinese social-media platform The Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu).
The center features a space dedicated to market research, arts and olfactory culture, and will host events and cultural programs. These will include fragrance master classes, perfumer encounters, and trend talks. The Little Red House audience will include Symrise’s clients, perfume fans, KOLs and the media.
“We consider China a strategic market for Symrise. To support our customers in a most agile way, we opened an R&D facility in 2019, invested €200m in a factory that opened in 2020 and now, The Little Red House will give us a dedicated space to co-create with our local and international customers. Also, it will highlight many of our high-tech capabilities. Therefore, The Little Red House marks the continuation of the Symrise expansion and reinvention of the fine fragrance category in Asia,” explains Ricardo Omori, Deputy President of Fragrance.
Julianne Pruett, Global President of Fine Fragrance added: “Just like L’Appartement Étoile in Paris, the Little Red House is strategically located in the center of Shanghai and brings us closer to our customers.”
To celebrate the opening of the Little Red House, perfumers David Apel, Suzy Le Helley and Maxime Exler worked on the revamp of one of Symrise’s De Laire bases: Piviane. The company says it pays tribute to China’s long connection with the peony flower.
The new Piviane Impériale De Laire carries the leathery signature of the Piviane and replaces the animalic undertone with a smoky sensation and a floral bloom.