GEKA's Bavarian hub drives global mascara
At its integrated Bechhofen center, GEKA combines industrial precision, co-creation workshops, and sustainability efforts to serve nearly 180 beauty
GEKA, a century-old company now part of the medmix beauty division, has consolidated its global mascara packaging expertise at its historic site in Bechhofen, Bavaria. The facility, spanning 22,000 square meters, houses the full spectrum of capabilities needed to produce mascara components, from plastic injection and brush manufacturing to assembly, decoration, and filling.
According to Stefanie Gunz, Head of Global Marketing & Communications at GEKA, a mascara package is a system of five components, the bottle, cap, wand, wiper, and brush, that must work in perfect harmony with the formula. The interaction of these elements defines the product's promise of volume, length, curl, or lash separation.
An integrated center of excellence
The Bechhofen site functions as a fully integrated center. It includes an internal laboratory, a testing center for injection processes, and a Competence Center for Application Solutions (CCAS). The CCAS conducts compatibility, stability, and performance tests to validate every new product launch before industrialization. These protocols also account for different climate constraints and consumer preferences across global markets, supported by a validation network extending to the United States, Brazil, and China.
Integrating these various skills aims to reduce development timelines, limit industrial risks, and optimize processes.
A factory built for flexibility
Industrial organization is another strength. With approximately 80 injection presses, 30 injection-blow molding machines, and production running three shifts, six days a week, the plant is designed to handle both large volumes and more limited series. A robotic storage system for standard components and semi-finished products allows for quick launches of small productions without unnecessarily tying up machine capacity.
Automation extends to the newest assembly lines, which can select the manufacturing program to implement thanks to RFID chips integrated into the conveyors. To guarantee execution quality, GEKA has internalized several competencies, such as making its own hot stamping tools and using a tomographic scanner to control part conformity with high precision.
Innovation and co-creation
This industrial excellence feeds directly into the German manufacturer's value proposition. Beyond its catalog of over 10,000 standard combinations, the company supports brands in custom developments through the Mascara Workshop at Bechhofen.
During these sessions, teams define key parameters with clients, brush choice, formula viscosity, packaging, expected performance, before conducting application tests, standardized evaluations, and documented technical recommendations. The goal is to help brands build a credible product claim from the earliest development phases.
Jennifer Dean, director of the Beauty division at parent company medmix, explained the approach. "We collaborate closely with our clients to co-create the ideal mascara," she said. "Our clients leave not only with a custom mascara concept but also with concrete market information that helps accelerate innovation."
This method particularly appeals to young DTC brands, which often have a strong understanding of trends but more limited R&D resources. GEKA's marketing teams maintain constant monitoring, combining social networks, trend agencies, makeup schools, and feedback from international markets.
The sustainability imperative
The Bechhofen site also plays a central role in medmix beauty's environmental strategy. Since 2025, the factory has sent zero waste to landfill. For its products, reducing the carbon footprint of packaging is a key focus.
GEKA offers fibers made from post-consumer recycled PET (PCR-PET) for its brushes, while PCR-PP is commonly used for bottles and caps. The new family of biosourced EOSgreen fibers and the proprietary Shadow Printing technology, which creates decorative effects while reducing emissions associated with traditional lacquering processes, are also part of this movement. However, the company claims a cautious approach to environmental assertions, insisting each claim must be verified multiple times before communication.
With this strategy of concentrating its expertise at Bechhofen, GEKA aims to defend its position as a reference in a segment where a product's performance depends as much on the packaging as on the formula.
