Korean cosmetics ODM business started in 1990 by 'Kolmar Korea 한국콜마(주)' (link to company website), which is one of the biggest ODM companies in Korea.
Kolmar Korea's founderYoon Dong-Han(Link to his biography) got his first job as a banker at Nonghyup as this job offered him the best salary. He worked for the company for about 4 years and realized that this banking work was not meant for him as he wanted something dynamic job.
Then he moved to relatively smaller company Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, worked very hard for about 15 years, got promoted very quickly, and finally became vice president.
As a very passionate business person, he then wanted to start his own business so he quit the job at Daewoong and founded Kolmar Korea as a joint venture with Kolmar Japan with their technical support.
Surely his experience at Daewoong help run this cosmetics manufacturer business a lot. Although the OEM/ODM business environment in Korea was very poor, Kolmar Korea was the pioneer to set up that environment: They firstly certified and registered as a proper Cosmetics Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) manufacturer in Korea (certified by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea).
Kolmar Korea runs 9 different labs for cosmetics research and development: skin care lab, makeup lab, personal care lab, skin science lab, Beijing lab, global technology center, fragrance lab, and package design lab. Of course these huge research teams make Kolmar Korea special and getting better manufacturer in Korea.
*Kolmar Korea also have labs for pharmaceuticals and health supplement food as well.
Through the research teams, they acquired 9 different local & global certificates such as CGMP, ISO, ECO-CERT, LOHAS(Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), et cetera.
They also registered over 3,600 functional cosmetics approvals for wrinkle care, brightening (whitening), sun care, and multiple functional formula.
In terms of patent, they got over 900 patents, utility models, and design application & registration as well.
Kolmar Korea started this cosmetics manufacturing business from the scratch in Korea and they have proven their high-end quality technologies through many innovative products.
They have put at least 5-6% of its total sales volume into research & development as these investments keep the company firm and stay on the leading position in the industry.
With all these efforts, however, they also have experienced such bad things like failing their CGMP certificate by FDA (FDA's warning letter link). It actually happens to other Korean manufacturers like Cosmecca and Nowcos as well and many Korean cosmetics manufacturers find it difficult to comply with the FDA's regulations and policies as they are not that really similar to other regulations that are normally followed in other countries (EU, China, South East Asia, etc.).
I think this is what all Korean cosmetics manufacturers should improve themselves to comply with the regulations of FDA as FDA's regulations are more strict than Korea MFDS (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety). This is quite a challenge, but I am pretty much sure they will succeed it as K-beauty manufacturers just started to get into the global market and it could be recognized as a period of transition for them to become global manufacturers.
By the way, Kolmar Korea's sales revenue in 2017 was quite superb: they recorded total sales of over US$732M, which is 23% higher than they made in 2016. It was 2nd largest sales volume among the Korean cosmetics manufacturers in 2017 (1st was COSMAX).
source: https://bit.ly/2H5LmnQ