Kale Care adds second Gebze surfactant site, lifting capacity to 100,000 metric tons
Kale Care Chemicals, a Turkish supplier of chemical raw materials and specialty ingredients, has invested in surfactant production with a second facility in Gebze, Turkey. The move lifts the company's total annual production capacity to 100,000 metric tons.
The expansion comes as beauty industry supply chains face raw material shortages, which climate stressors have worsened, and logistical barriers linked to rising geopolitical tensions. Cosmetic companies are turning to localised suppliers in strategic regions as a result.
A Kale Care spokesperson says the Gebze plant gives the company greater production flexibility, consistent quality, shorter response times and improved supply security. The company says the investment spans surfactants, preservation systems and specialty ingredients rather than a single category. "We see Turkey as a strategic manufacturing and supply location for the personal care ingredients industry," the spokesperson says.
Kale Care generates approximately 62% of its revenue from exports and has customers and partners in over 40 countries. It cites over 50 years of manufacturing experience. The company says it is seeing increasing interest from customers and formulators in mild surfactants, preservation systems and multifunctional ingredients, and that it is pursuing developments in biosurfactants and preservation technology.
A capacity story, not a molecule story
This is an expansion of manufacturing capacity. It is not a new molecule, and the company has not disclosed the feedstocks that the Gebze plant will process. Readers should therefore not treat it as evidence of a shift away from palm derivatives or petrochemical inputs. The biosurfactant work the company mentions is described only as a development area, with no stage of scale-up given.
Who may be affected
For procurement teams, the relevant question is regional supply security. A second site in Turkey, with the company citing proximity to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, may give buyers in those regions another sourcing option. The company's own claims on response times and supply security are not yet backed by customer evidence in the public record, so buyers may want to test them in qualification.
Formulators should note the properties the company says customers now weigh together: biodegradability, formulation compatibility, regulatory requirements and product positioning. That framing suggests demand is moving beyond single-metric performance. The company also says performance, formulation stability, regulatory compliance and cost will stay important in the adoption of new technologies, which points to a market where sustainability claims alone do not win specifications.
For other suppliers, the export weighting is a signal. With around 62% of revenue coming from exports, Kale Care's added capacity is likely to be aimed at the same international customers that competitors serve. Investors tracking biosurfactants may find the company's stated interest in the area relevant, though no funding, offtake or pilot detail has been disclosed.
What the decision turns on
The development bears most directly on sourcing choices. Buyers weighing regional diversification will want to see the plant's start-up timing, product slate and feedstock origin, none of which has been disclosed. It will be worth watching whether Kale Care publishes that detail, and whether its biosurfactant and preservation work moves from a stated aim to documented pilot or commercial scale.