Supporting cosmetics brands in product development
ODM partnerships targeting brands without in-house development teams
'Scope of cooperation to expand in stages'
Model Solution, a comprehensive solutions company under Hankook & Company Group, announced Thursday that it is expanding its beauty device ODM (original design manufacturing) business, drawing on its accumulated product development and manufacturing capabilities. The company plans to broaden its customer base by supporting cosmetics brands and beauty startups that lack in-house device development teams, covering everything from product planning through development and manufacturing.
Model Solution has provided integrated development and manufacturing services to global clients, encompassing product design, mechanical and electronic engineering, software engineering, precision prototyping, and mold injection linked to mass production. The company has also built experience through numerous projects in the beauty and medical device sectors. It now plans to leverage its engineering assets to expand beyond its existing globally focused business structure and reach domestic and international beauty brands.
Unlike cosmetics, beauty devices require a complex set of technical capabilities — electronic and mechanical design, user safety, quality control, and mass production processes. Brands with limited hardware development experience face the burden of coordinating separately with multiple specialized firms at every stage from concept to production. Model Solution aims to serve as an integrated partner that reduces this complexity throughout the development and manufacturing process.
The company's primary targets are small and mid-sized beauty brands looking to extend their existing cosmetics lines into the device category, as well as beauty startups with new product ideas. These companies can use Model Solution's engineering and production capabilities to bring device products to market without maintaining a separate development organization. Even at the early concept stage, before product specifications are finalized, clients can work with Model Solution to assess technical feasibility and explore development directions together.
Model Solution goes beyond simply manufacturing to client specifications. It proposes device development directions informed by a brand's target customers and existing product portfolio, and presents commercialization plans that balance target specifications against manufacturing costs — ensuring the result is both true to the brand's identity and viable for actual launch.
Another distinguishing feature is the company's approach of designing with mass production in mind from the earliest development stages. Model Solution provides services in phases — concept review, functional verification and mass production — calibrated to each client's development progress.
The company has also put in place the regulatory groundwork needed for the business expansion. At an extraordinary shareholders' meeting held Thursday morning, Model Solution passed a resolution to amend its articles of incorporation, adding cosmetics sales, beauty device and medical device development, manufacturing and sales, and related wholesale, retail, e-commerce and mail-order businesses to its stated corporate purposes. The move is intended to preemptively organize the business scope required for transactions with clients and product supply in carrying out beauty device ODM operations.
"In the beauty market, devices have established themselves as a critical area for expanding a brand's product competitiveness and customer experience," said Yoo Hyung-min, chief executive of Model Solution. "Building on the product development and precision manufacturing capabilities we have accumulated, we want to be a partner that helps companies with strong ideas and brand competitiveness bring new products to market while easing the burden of hardware development."
Meanwhile, Model Solution has been strengthening its global partnerships across various fields. In April, the company successfully completed an industry-academia collaboration project with ArtCenter College of Design, a world-renowned design institution in the United States, and publicly presented the results.
likehyo85@heraldcorp.com
